(*Ormiston, East Lothian, Scot., 21.12.1795 – †Leigh, Kent, Eng., 8.8.1883), missionary of the L.M.S., Tswana linguist and Bible translator, was born of humble parentage, the third son in a family of five sons and two daughters. His father, Robert Moffat, was a custom-house officer, his mother was Ann Gardiner, of Ormiston. His sketchy elementary education was supplemented by the teaching of the minister and by the influence of his kind, but sternly religious mother.

After serving his apprenticeship as a gardener he from 1809 found employment first in Fifeshire, then in Cheshire, and, subsequently, in 1815, with a nursery gardener named James Smith at Dukinfield, near Manchester. Smith was of a strongly religious turn and his daughter, Mary, was a pious young woman with ‘a warm missionary heart’. M.’s own heart was set on missionary work and in 1816 he was accepted by the L.M.S. A Presbyterian by upbringing, M. had, while serving as a gardener in Cheshire, come under the influence of some earnest Wesleyan Methodists. He had resolved to devote his life to religious work and to become a missionary.

He sailed for South Africa in October 1816 in the company of the missionaries J. Kitchingman, J. Evans, J. Taylor and John Brownlee and arrived in Cape Town on 13.1.1817. During his stay at Dukinfield he had fallen in love with Mary Smith (1795-1871), and she with him. James Smith, however, was determined that his daughter should not go abroad, and it was not until three years later that this objection was overcome.

M.’s destination was Great Namaqualand, north of the Orange river, but to his disappointment the local authorities, for political reasons, at first refused him permission to proceed there. M. usefully filled in the time of waiting by going to Stellenbosch to acquire a working knowledge of Dutch. He also accompanied the missionary Dr George Thom to mission stations of the L.M.S. and reported many irregularities. Permission was eventually obtained; he left Cape Town in October 1817, crossed the Orange river at Pella drift, and reached Great Namaqualand in the following January.

The people among whom he was to work were ruled by Jager (Christiaan) Afrikaner, formerly a notorious Hottentot freebooter who lived at Afrikanerskraal, some distance to the east of the present Warmbad in South-West Africa. M. made a considerable impression on Afrikaner, and persuaded him to go with him on a joint visit to Cape Town . Meanwhile he had journeyed far north in South-West Africa with Afrikaner, but saw no hope of establishing a mission there, and travelled eastward to Griquatown and Dithakong in Bechuanaland before returning to Afrikanerskraal and to Cape Town. His early observations on the geology of the Griqua and Bechuana country are of particular interest in view of later mineral exploitation of this region.

On his arrival in April 1819, M. found in Cape Town a deputation from the L.M.S. This consisted of Dr John Philip and John Campbell, who had been sent out to investigate various allegations that had been made against the society’s missions and missionaries. The deputation invited M. to accompany them as their interpreter in Dutch, but their tour was cut short by the Fifth Frontier War (1819) on the eastern border of the colony. M. returned to Cape Town in time to welcome his fiancee when she landed in South Africa for the first time. Robert and Mary were married in St George’s church, Cape Town, on 27.12.1819.

It was an ideally happy union; Mary had faith and courage of a high order, for without these she could not have left her home and parents to sail to the other end of the world. She also had a will of her own and her views on people were direct and uncompromising. At the same time she was wholly engrossed in her husband’s work and found her fulfilment in supporting him with a care that grew more constant with the years.

Apart from his marriage M.’s visit to Cape Town had other important consequences. He was persuaded by the deputation to abandon Namaqualand and to take over the society’s station among the Tswana. He arrived at Dithakong, one hundred miles north of Klaarwater (Griquatown) in March 1820. Permission to live there was at first withheld by the authorities, but was given after M. had temporarily returned to Griquatown. In May 1821 the Moffats again took up residence at Dithakong.

The people among whom M. laboured were the Tlhaping, the most southerly of the tribes collectively known as Tswana (Bechuana). They were not unknown to Europeans, having been visited by Truter and Somerville in 1801 and thereafter by several travellers. Their chief was Mothibi, son of Molehabangwe, who in 1813 had invited John Campbell to ‘send instructors’ to his country, at the same time promising to be ‘a father’ to them.

The first missionaries sent in response to his invitation, John Evans and Robert Hamilton, were, in fact, rebuffed, but the. elder James Read and Hamilton obtained a foothold at the end of 1816. In the following year Read persuaded Mothibi to move the tribal capital southwards from Dithakong (Old Lithako) to the Kuruman river. Read was transferred and Hamilton then struggled on alone until M.’s arrival.

The Moffats had not long settled at Dithakong when there began a period of considerable excitement and anxiety. In 1823 one of the hordes, part refugees, part banditti, set in motion by the wars of the Zulu chief Shaka invaded southern Bechuanaland . M. acted promptly and enlisted the help of some of Andries Waterhoer’s Griquas, mounted riflemen, who put the invaders to flight.

Although the immediate danger of invaders from the east had been averted, the following years were difficult and depressing, as can be gauged from M.’s letters and journals of the period 1820-1828, published in 1951 (Schapera, infra ). The people remained deaf to the missionaries’ teaching; bands of marauders roamed the countryside and sometimes threatened the station; Mothibi drifted away with most of his people. The missionaries refused to be discouraged and in 1829, as if miraculously, the sky seemed to clear and thereafter there was peace. In that year, too, the first converts were baptized. Meanwhile the station itself had moved. In 1824 M. persuaded Mothibi to transfer the tribal capital from New Lithako (Maruping) to Seoding, the present site. This was further up-stream and nearer the famous ‘eye’ of Kuruman, where a veritable underground river bursts into the open.

By instinct and training a gardener, M, used the water of the river to raise crops by irrigation. His efforts to teach the natives better agriculture, though not quickly successful, showed results in the long run.

The year 1829 was not only memorable for an improvement in the fortunes of the mission. It also saw the beginning of M’s extraordinary friendship with Mzilikazi, chief of the Matebele. This chief, his curiosity aroused by tales about the white men, sent two headmen to Kuruman on a visit of inquiry. M. accompanied them to Mzilikazi’s town near the site of future Pretoria. At their first meeting Mzilikazi conceived an extraordinary affection for M. which remained undiminished for thirty years. M. visited Mzilikazi again in 1835 at Mosega in the western Transvaal , this time accompanying the great expedition to the interior led by Dr Andrew Smith. After the Matebele had moved beyond the Limpopo to Bulawayo , M. paid three more visits to Mzilikazi in 1854, 1857 and 1859. The extensive journals kept by M. and dealing with these occasions were discovered in 1942 and published in 1945 (cf. L P. R. Wallis, infra).

It was never remotely likely that Mzilikazi would become a Christian, but, short of that, he went to extraordinary lengths to please the man whom he revered. He moderated his laws, mitigated his punishments, submitted meekly to many harsh reproofs for his depravity, and in his old age actually permitted the L.M.S. to establish a station in his country at Inyati.

Almost as soon as he had mastered the Tlhaping dialect of the Tswana language, M. began to translate the Bible and to prepare other devotional and educational publications in this language. Of his first Tswana spelling and reading book (published in London in 1826) only a fragment has survived. With the help of Rogers Edwards this became the Buka ea Likaélo tsa ntla … (Kuruman, 1842), of which a third edition, with variation of contents, appeared in 1843, other editions following in 1850 and 1857.

In his early years at Kuruman M. also prepared the first Tswana catechism, a translation of the catechism of Dr Brown, of Edinburgh , to which he added the third chapter of St John (printed in Holborn, London, in 1826). Various later editions appeared at Kuruman and in London until 1848, all containing, besides questions, extracts from the Holy Scriptures.

By 1830 M. had completed his translation of St Luke, which he took to Cape Town and composed for printing with his own hands at the government press. The book was printed under the supervision of B. J. van de Sandt, from whom M. learned to set up type, to print and to bind. This knowledge he was to apply when, in 1831, he brought his hand printing-press by ox-wagon to Kuruman and started the printing of his own Tlhaping work, as well as literature produced by his missionary colleagues of the Paris Evangelical mission society at Mothito, who used the Rolong dialect of Tswana.

While working on his Bible translation, M. published a collection of hymns ( Lihela tsa tuto le puloko tsa Yesu Kereste, Kuruman , 1831), with later editions and a supplement in 1855. With Edwards he wrote and printed at Kuruman a book of Bible lessons ( Likaelo tsa ri tlauchoeng mo Bibelieng … ) in 1833, with a second edition of 5,000 copies in 1841, and this was evidently used in teaching at other mission stations, too.

M.’s publication of the gospel of St Luke in 1830 had been the first published translation of a portion of the Bible in any South African native language. By 1836 he had struck off on his press part of his translation of St James, and in 1839 took to Cape Town for printing his translation of the whole New Testament. As he could not arrange for the printing to be done in Cape Town, he took his manuscript to Britain where his Tswana New Testament appeared the following year ( Kholagano enca ea Yesu Keresete … London, 1840). This was the first complete translation of its kind into a South African native language, and was followed in 1841 by the publication in London of his translation of Psalms, which he had actually done while in Britain.

On his return to Kuruman M. continued his monumental task of also translating the Old Testament with the help of his colleague, William Ashton (1817-1897), also printing it on his trusty old mission press (now preserved in the Kimberley public library) in two parts: the first in 1853, the second in 1857. When M. presented the final parts of his Bibela ea boitsépho to Sir George Grey in November 1857, it was the first full translation of the Bible in any South African native tongue. Likewise, through M.’s initiative and energy, Tswana was the fifth language in Africa to have a translation of the New Testament, and the third to have a complete translation of the Bible. At the same time M. had confirmed his claim to a place among the great translators by completing this herculean labour.

During his sojourn in Britain from June 1839 to the beginning of 1843, he wrote and published his Missionary labours and scenes in southern Africa ( London, 1840), which aroused unprecedented public interest. The fourth edition appeared in 1842 while he was still in Britain, and by 1846 eleven thousand copies and a French edition had been printed. M. appeared before enthusiastic gatherings, preaching and lecturing, and some of his addresses were published: Africa: or, gospel light shining in the midst of heathen darkness. A sermon on Isaiah IX2 … preached … before the directors of the London missionary society ( London, 1840); African scenes; being a series of anecdotes … related by the Rev. R. Moffat, at public meetings … (Sunderland, 1843); Incidents in the life of the Rev. R. Moll at, being an address delivered by him … 1842 ( Birmingham, 1842); The farewell services of Robert Moffat, in Edinburgh, Manchester, and London. Edited by John Campbell ( London, 1843).

His visit also gave rise to a number of publications by others on his work in South Africa . It was in 1841, too, that M. met young David Livingstone, then studying for his ordination in London, directed his interest to Africa and secured his services for the mission to the Kwena. By the end of 1843 he was back at Kuruman.

M.’s fourth visit to Mzilikazi in 1857 had as its object a mission to the Matebele. It was on this journey that he persuaded Mzilikazi to release from military servitude Matsheng, rightful chief of the Ngwato. In doing so he innocently brought much trouble on that tribe (cf. Sekgoma I and John Mackenzie).

In 1858 irresponsible Tlhapings raided the O.F.S. and the Transvaal republic, suspecting that the Kuruman missionaries were in league with the tribesmen. The Transvaal seemed disposed to frustrate the expedition which Moffat was to lead to Matebeleland. At the same time burghers were reported to be making preparations to attack Kuruman. M. appealed to Sir George Grey, governor of the Cape Colony, who obtained from President M. W. Pretorius a repudiation of the plan to attack Kuruman; nor was anything more done to stop the proposed journey. M. accordingly led a missionary party to Matebeleland and returned to Kuruman in August 1860, leaving his companions at the new station of Inyati. One of the Matebele party was his own son, John Smith Moffat.

After this date M. did not undertake any more long journeys. He remained at Kuruman, devoting himself to the work of the station and out-stations, where there was more than enough for him to do.

In 1848 he had translated and published at Kuruman Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s progress; his third visit to Mzilikazi he described in a pamphlet in 1856, and in 1863 appeared an account of his work in the mission field, entitled Rivers of water in a dry place. An account of the introduction of Christianity into southern Africa, and of Mr. Moffat’s missionary labours.

(London, 1863, with new editions in 1867 and 1869).

M.’s last years were saddened by family bereavements. He preached at Kuruman for the last time on 20.3.1870 and a few days later the patriarchal pair set out for Britain and retirement. Mary Moffat died in Brixton in January 1871. M. continued to travel about the United kingdom, preaching and advancing the cause of missions. He revised his translation of the New Testament, of which a new edition, as well as an edition of the whole Tswana Bible appeared in 1872. In the same year the University of Edinburgh conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D.

He went to live in London, where he was present at the funeral of David Livingstone in 1874, and at the unveiling of the Livingstone statue in Edinburgh in 1876. In 1877 he visited Paris by invitation to address a great gathering of French children. In 1879 he went to live at Leigh, near Tunbridge, and on 7.5.1881 he was publicly honoured in London at a dinner attended by leading figures in the religious, and philanthropic world, and representatives of both houses of parliament.

M. lies buried in Norwood cemetery, beside the remains of his wife. There is a monument to his memory in Ormiston, his birthplace. He and his wife had ten children, four sons and six daughters, of whom two daughters and a son died young. His eldest daughter, Mary Moffat (1821-1862), was the wife of David Livingstone; the second daughter, Anne Moffat (1823-1893), married a French missionary, Jean Fr6doux (1823-1866), of Mothitho; the eldest surviving son, Robert Moffat (1827-1862), was a trader; Helen Moffat (1829-1902) married J. Vavasseur; the youngest son, the missionary John Smith Moffat, was also the biographer of his parents; Elizabeth (Bessie) Lees Moffat (1839-1919) became the wife of Roger Price, and the youngest daughter, Jane Gardiner Moffat (1840 to 1927), died unmarried.

M. was a simple man of extraordinary zeal, de-termination and courage. He was essentially evangelical, holding that the missionary’s chief task, indeed his only task, was to ‘teach poor heathen to know the Saviour’. Any other interest he held to be irrelevant and likely to obscure this supreme objective. He disapproved strongly; for example, of John Philip’s ‘political’ activities, al-though these were aimed at improving the lot of the native peoples. He had no interest in native customs and traditional usages, which he either condemned as sinful or dismissed as silly and squalid.

He was also strangely insensitive to the devotion which he inspired in Mzilikazi, which he neither understood nor appreciated. Although M. missed so much, his writings, which consist of letters, reports and an autobiography, nevertheless contain much historical material concerning the native peoples, as well as many vivid sidelights on the trials and triumphs of a missionary’s life. It has been suggested that his overwhelming personality allowed little scope for the development of a strong succession; that he centralized too much and fostered initiative too little; that his prestige obscured the contribution made by other workers in his field. Even if true, this does not detract from his achievements. Under his guidance Kuruman became not only the focus of Christian civilization in southern Bechuanaland, but also a springboard for the exploration and evangelization of the still more remote interior. M.’s place is among the great nineteenth-century missionaries.

Portraits of M. are to be found in the three volumes of his published journals and letters, the biography by his son, and most other works on his life. The frontispiece of the 1843 edition of his Missionary labours contains the Baxter print of the youthful missionary; an etching of the portrait by Leon Richelson at the time of M.’s visit to Paris in April 1877 is in the Africana museum, Johannesburg. The stone church at Kuruman, built by M. from 1830 to 1833, was proclaimed as a national monument in 1939. M.’s home, though dilapidated, was still in existence in 1964.

Source: Dictionary of South African Biography (Volume 1)

Some information on Robert Moffat’s wife, Mary Smith Moffat:

Mary Smith Moffat (1795-1871) was missionary wife of Robert Moffat, and mother of Mary, the wife of David Livingstone. Born in New Windsor, England, she married Robert Moffat in December, 1819 at Cape Town, South Africa. They settled at Kuruman in Bechuanaland and established a mission there. They had ten children: Mary (who married David Livingstone), Ann, Robert (died as an infant), Robert, Helen, Elizabeth (died as an infant), James, John, Elizabeth, and Jean. The Moffats returned to England in 1839 for their only furlough. In 1870, the aged missionaries returned to England to stay. Mary died shortly thereafter.

Robert Moffat

Mary Smith

The people who came to the Cape of Good Hope under Commander Van Riebeeck were very simple folk, common soldiers and sailors who cared more about comfort than fashion. Their clothes were necessarily as simple as their persons. For the first few months after their arrival they lived a camping life, and their European-made clothing probably became soiled and bedraggled, eventually to be replaced by crude home-made garments cut from rolls of imported cloth until the Burghers became settled and until tradesmen were allowed to ply their trades. Men would probably dress in crude leather buff-coats with a plain cotton or linen shirt beneath and tubular or knee breeches; and women in simple full-skirted gowns tucked up over short petticoats. But the patterns for even these home-made clothes would have been based on the modes fashionable at the time of the departure from Holland. These notes and illustrations do not attempt to reconstruct the makeshift clothing of the pioneering period of the first years at the Cape but to give some idea of the clothing worn by merchants, soldiers, sailors and simple people in Holland and in the service of the Dutch East India Company at that time, such as might have been at the Cape with Jan van Riebeeck.
The dominant influence of the 16th century was powerful Spain; during the first two decades of the 17th century Spanish fashions prevailed abroad; in the third they began to make way for other modes, yet certain articles of Spanish costume were retained, not for decades but for centuries. By Van Riebeeck's time Holland was at her zenith of political power and enjoying immense wealth, and this may account for the change of influence in fashion. Holland now took the reins and from then until the end of the century dictated what was to be worn. Holland demanded increasing simplicity in dress and exerted similar influence on colour, for black rapidly became the fashionable wear.

MEN

Since soldiers and explorers could not possibly wear, for any length of time, garments into which they were stuffed like sausages in their skins or throttle themselves in ruffs which gave them stiff necks, masculine costume was the first to break away from the conventions of Spanish modes. Man's dress now veered in the opposite direction from the Spanish costume with the general narrowness and tightness and acquired a wide, loose, vulgarly speaking sloppy character. The main difference lay in the breeches, formerly short, round and bombasted, reaching barely mid-way down the thigh, they now became loose and ample. There were three main types. First the long, full breeches to the knee, where they were fastened by long scarflike bands which were trimmed with lace at the ends. This type was fashionable during the third and fourth decade of the century and by Van Riebeeck's time the second type, the tubular breeches, which were unconfined at the knee and were garnished with ribbon loops at hems and waist-band and usually had rows of brocaded braid or ribbon sewn round the hems had become very popular.
Both these types were cut very full and baggy in the body and were gathered on to a band at the waist. There were large pockets in the seams at the sides which were frequently finished with embroidery or braid. The third type was an offshoot of the tubular breeches, which had been growing wider and wider. This was the petticoat or Rhinegrave breeches, resembling petticoats in cut. They originated in Holland and consisted of 20 to 30 metres of material made into a short divided skirt that reached to the knees, trimmed at waist and hem with loops and bunches of ribbons. Occasionally they were worn over knee-breeches during the later part of the period.

The corset-like Spanish doublet, busked and with a pointed waist and deep wings, held its own until 1632 when a loose sort of coat appeared, based on the military coat which had been worn by soldiers since the early part of the century, and is shown on the alleged portrait of Van Riebeeck in the Mayor's Parlour in the Cape Town City Hall. It was long and ample and was designed for comfort. It reached to the hips, and buttons formed most of the decoration. It had slits at the side and back and the sleeves, which were full had buttons from shoulder to cuff, most of which could be and often were, left unfastened to show the shirt beneath. The neck was high and was covered by a collar or cravat. Although men of action, like Van Riebeeck must have favoured it for many years, in the world of fashion this sensible jacket only made a very short stay, no sooner did it appear, but fashion, with its constant tendency towards extremes, took it in hand and turned a sensible garment into a perfect absurdity, and Cape critics must have seen this fashion on visiting officials and ridiculed this change. Not only did men no longer close their coats right down the front but they were shortened, and the open sleeves were reduced to about half their length so that the result looked exactly like a child's jacket. Elegance depended less upon trimming than a wonderful array of white linen.

The shirt had become one of the main objects of luxury; male attire permitted a vast expanse of this garment to show, for with an open coat that barely covered the ribs, the shirt was visible not only right down the front, but to the breadth of a couple of hands round the waist and almost the whole of the sleeve was displayed. This did not satisfy some young gentlemen who conceived the notion of cutting the top of the breeches down to the hip-line and men looked as though they were losing their breeches. By the time Van Riebeeck left the Cape this fashion was general, and there are many pictures extant showing officials of the Dutch East India Company wearing these abbreviated coats and displaying large areas of shirt. Loose coats of cassock-type, to mid- thigh, with wide sleeves turned up, appear for winter wear.

The shirt was made of the finest linen and, like other clothing, was large and loose. The sleeves were very full, set into the shoulders and cuffs with fine stroked gathers. In the early part of the decade cuffs were made to match the cravat and frequently had deep lace or embroidered borders. Sometimes there was a frill gathered with the sleeve into the wrist band which could be finished with a narrow black velvet ribbon with ends that tied in a bow. In other instances the cuff resembled the modern one and turned back over the coat sleeve. The most common form had the fullness gathered into a plain narrow wrist-band and a puff of the sleeve billowed out below the rather short coat-sleeve. The Batavian portrait of Van Riebeeck in the Rijksmuseum (reproduced as the frontispiece to Godée Molsbergen's life of Van Riebeeck, De stichter van Hollands Zuid-Afrika) shows the shirt cuff folded back over the coat sleeve and the portrait in the Cape Town City Hall has a very good example of the shortened coat sleeve unbuttoned from shoulder to cuff displaying the full shirt sleeve in the opening and billowing out in a huge puff below the coat cuff.

The change of the shape of the breeches was accompanied by a change in footwear and during Van Riebeeck's time boots – often spurred – were general for outdoor wear. The long close boot, commonly turned down or folded into a cup beneath the knee, recurred throughout but the tendency was for the tops to expand more and more. Shorter boots with bucket-tops were common. The spur-leathers had a butterfly shape at the instep, growing so large as to cover the foot. The toes tapered to a square tip.
In winter several pairs of stockings were worn. Between them and the boots were the boot-hose, often edged with lace or embroidery, who's spreading tops filled the tops of the boots; boot-hose could be worn with shoes.

Contemporary illustrations show the boot- hose brought up over the knee to keep them from creasing when the wearer was seated. Garters were tied in a great bow below the knee.

Shoes were very often open at the side. In 1652 huge ribbon roses decorated the front but from 1655 they were replaced by limp bows and later stiffened ones.

Now that the Spanish ruff had gone men wore comfortable neckwear. The soft, wide collar was in great favour in the early fifties. Later it became narrower round the neck but came well down in front. This was tile "cravat," said to have derived its name from a regiment of Croatians in the service of the French Court. The cravat was made of fine lawn, often plain but just as often bordered with lace or embroidery. It was tied underneath, at the neck, with cord so that the two sides fell parallel and the tasselled ends of the cord hung just below the edges.

The change in collars naturally resulted in a change of coiffure and hats. The stiff ruff, tilting up at the back, had practically compelled men to have short hair, but with its disappearance the necessity ceased. By Van Riebeeck's time men's heads had become framed in a mass of hair and as every man did not rejoice in a natural abundance of hair, a few years after the adoption of the cravat the periwig appeared although it was only adopted by young bloods and old men until the last part of the century, and was probably never seen at the Cape.

The new style of hair-dressing called for a new style of hats and the small, big-crowned hat now made way for the large pliable felt hat with broad brim and sweeping plumes. Respondant was a good name for it, for by the various ways in which the brim could be bent it could be adapted to express the moods of its wearer. Soon plumes were discarded in favour of ribbons. A plumed beret of black velvet was seen occasionally and for sport a cap with a brim capable of being turned up or down and often split in front was much worn. Some sort of head-gear was worn at all times.

Cloaks were worn all through the period, they reached the knees or lower and were slung and draped in various ways. From one or both shoulders, diagonally across the back, or close wrapped like the modem Spanish Cape the right hand corner being flung across the left shoulder – or again they could be carried wrapped loosely over the arm. The Rijksmuseum and Craey portraits both show Van Riebeeck wearing a cloak.

Very broad sashes tied in a great bow behind often confined the waist over the coat, for military wear. The shoulder-belt or baldrick often took the form of a wide soft sash with a large bow and long lace-edged ends at the side. Or it could be flat and heavily embroidered or brocaded in which case it fastened with a large ornamental buckle on the breast. (Perfect example on the Cape Town portrait of Van Riebeeck).

Deep gauntlet gloves, often fringed and embroidered were very fashionable both for men and for women. (Rijksmuseum and Craey portraits show men's gloves). It was considered ill-bred to appear in public without cloak or gown (similar to the academic gown of to-day) and on formal occasions the host and chief guests were generally covered indoors.

Military Costume

By 1650 it had been realised that heavy armour was less important than mobility and, except for cavalry, soldiers only wore a few essential pieces of armour. Van Riebeeck is unlikely to have had any cavalry, so no heavy armour would have been seen at the Cape.

The trooper and musketeer had no armour at all (they had to be able to move about quickly) but always wore the long military buff-coat over a doublet or with stuffed or slashed sleeves to give that impression. The buff-coat came over the hips and was fastened down the front and slit up the sides. They wore the full breeches of the day, caught at the knee or tubular and shoes and stockings or bucket-topped boots (often with boot-hose or boot-hose without the boots). The trooper generally wore a sash round his waist over his buff-coat and the musketeer wore a shoulder-belt holding all the paraphernalia connected with the fire-arms of those days. They both wore Respondants and their collars and shirt sleeves often had trimmings.
The arquebusier dressed in the same way as the musketeer except that he wore a Morion (sometimes plumed) – a metal helmet with a brim, usually small, with a small comb or ridge across the crown from front to back – and he carried a tripod or forked rest to support his weapon.

Pike-men wore morions and corselets (body armour consisting of breast-plate, back-plate – without pauldrons, which covered the shoulder-blades- and sometimes tasses-covering the front of the body from the waist to the thigh-which were hinged to the breast-plate) instead of buff-coats. On the march the head-piece was suspended by a ring (or it had the brim pierced for the purpose) to a hook on the back-plate over the right hip, and the pike-man assumed a Respondant like his fellows.

Officers dressed very fashionably and frequently had no armour at all. Sometimes a gorget was worn beneath the collar or a breast-plate beneath the coat. Bright colours and lavish lace were much favoured and the haidrick was made of the richest materials. Puffed or slashed sleeves were popular for military wear.

Common sailors and the poorer class of civilian, servants, etc., clung to a few of the old fashions or modified the fashions of the day to suit themselves. A simple form of the Spanish doublet with short basques and wings at the shoulders and plain tight sleeves was common. Rhinegraves were seldom seen amongst the poorer classes but tubular breeches were in general use. The Respondant was used by all classes, but sailors and labourers favoured an equally pliable conical cap, which could be worn at any angle and squashed in or dragged to one side as the wearer felt inclined. Shoes were often home-made and consisted of one piece of leather roughly triangular in shape; one point was drawn up over the toe to meet the other two which came round the ankle.

As previously mentioned black was the predominant colour of the period, particularly for men, but the general effect was rich rather than sombre because of the wonderful contrasts obtained. First there was the white of shirt and collar, then red was often found somewhere about the costume, the heels of shoes, or the lining of boots, or the stockings or all three. Gold galloon (braid) was widely used as trimming in Holland and is bound to have adorned the church clothing of Cape folk when they could get it and boots were often made of mellow yellow leather. The brightly-coloured baldrick always supplied a perfect foil for the black, brown or grey coat because it could be red, gold, yellow, blue or any other rich colour.

Women

Spanish fashions remained in favour longer among the women than among men. The deep-pointed wasp-waisted stomacher held its own until well into the 30's though generally in part hidden by the gown and although in 1630 a low-necked bodice with high waist and skirt tabs like a male doublet came into favour (generally opening over a long round-pointed stomacher to match) by 1650 the long closed bodice had re-appeared, pointed in front and laced behind.
The bodice was always decollete, shaped like a V or round or square or -more commonly – the decolletage ran horizontally round the bust and appeared to be falling off the shoulders, but was modified, in most cases, by the border of the chemise – often lace-edged – and by scarves of lace and gauze variously draped and pinned. The most common form was a square kerchief of linen or lace, folded in half and laid over a low-cut falling-collar, which largely masked the exposed shoulders and bosom and was fastened in front with a breast pin and rosette or knot of pearls or cords with tasselled ends or even left loose if desired.

Sometimes there were collars of linen or lace hanging straight all round sometimes high in the neck sometimes low-cut. Apart from this, the low neck of the bodice was nearly always edged with linen or lace. The bodice itself was often trimmed with vertical and diagonal rows of braid converging at the pointed waistline. This is shown in the Craey portrait of Maria. By 1650 the hand-ruff had been replaced by a spreading turn-back cuff. The short, loose-fitted bodice sleeve was often edged with braid beneath which peeped out the cuff and sleeve of the chemise – which was as important as a man's shirt and therefore was made very beautifully – or perhaps the cuff of the chemise would be turned back over the cuff of the bodice-sleeve in which case it would be rich with embroidery.

In the course of the 20's the last traces of the verdingale in the form of padding at the hips vanished except for the older women. By Van Riebeeck's time the skirt, gathered or pleated in at the waist hung freely. It was sometimes looped up and tucked under to uncover the petticoat of a contrasting material often richly decorated. The most popular forms were (a) the skirt opening in an inverted V-shape over a petticoat, sometimes the overskirt was drawn back and caught in a bustle effect and (b) a plain gown with trimming to simulate the V-shaped opening. Towards 1660 the skirt is often quite plain and closed all round. Long loose gowns falling straight from the neck were worn by old ladies and widows during the period. The tucked-up skirt would have been favoured by Cape women because the short petticoat allowed freedom of movement.
Even out of doors, ladies, for the most part, did not wear hats. Young girls were bare headed except for a brocaded caul or cap over the bun or pearl decorations round it. Young women and young matrons added to this by putting a covering in front of the caul, forming a survival of the old French Hood and Mary Queen of Scots cap. For formal occasions this could be made of velvet trimmed with ribbons or pearls or of some rich material with brocade, ribbon and jewels. For informal wear linen, lawn or gauze was used, with lace and rosettes of ribbon as trimmings. The velvet editions usually had a "widow's peak" over the brow (the Craey portrait of Maria van Riebeeck). Older women often wore draped or folded linen hoods, forming a shield for the face (obviously a parent of the South African kappie) and loose kerchiefs tied under the chin were favoured for everyday use by all.

During Van Riebeeck's time plain, high-crowned, broad-brimmed hats (over close lace or linen caps) enjoyed a transient phase of popularity in Europe and probably were seen at the Cape. For riding and hunting a masculine type of hat was adopted, high-crowned, broad-brimmed and plumed, and the plumed velvet beret was purloined from a man's wardrobe for outdoor wear.

The hair itself was generally strained off the face to a flat bun at the back. A high forehead being fashionable, many women obtained the desired effect by shaving the hair round the hair-line. Sometimes a few tendrils were left loose at the front, arranged as a fringe over the brow or set in a series of stiff little kiss curls, the whole effect was very severe (except for very young women and girls, who were allowed to loosen the hair a little) with sometimes a few bunches of formal cork-screw curls at the sides as a relief. Later these were wired away from the face and frequently reached the shoulders. Occasionally the side hair was frizzed out in a bush. The chignon, which projected quite a lot, when not enclosed in a tiny caul was decked with pearls. Bows of ribbon and strings of pearls formed hair ornaments. (Maria van Riebeeck has pearls on her French hood in Craey's portrait).
Jewelry was used sparingly compared to the Spanish period and was chiefly in the form of necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings, kerchief-pins and miscellaneous pendants.

During the first part of the decade women's shoes were the same shape as men's. They were seldom seen because of the long ample skirts and were fastened with buckles and ribbons. Later they started to grow very high in the heel and the square toe went out of fashion in favour of a slight point. At the Cape during the first years they were probably home-made of leather.
The short sleeve gave rise to an exclusively feminine type of glove, long, close-fitting, generally of plain white kid or doe-skin, it reached to the elbow where it was secured by a glove-band of plaited horse-hair or by ribbon ties.

Muffs were in general use in the winter and fans were still used. Fixed circular ostrich-feather fans with long handles were much used in the Indies and are bound to have been common at the Cape. Large sunshades, carried by attendants were considered a necessity for the wives of Dutch East India Company officials in the East and after Van Riebeeck had imported slaves in 1657, in all probability they were seen at the Cape of Good Hope. When going to church ladies carried their Bibles on their arms, dangling by ribbons or cords, and often had a page to hold the trailing skirts of the gowns out of the dust.

As with the men of the period black was the predominant colour except for young girls and children, but, here again the combinations were so delightful that the result was not dull. White seems to have been next in favour and a white petticoat trimmed with gold galloon under a black dress appears to have been particularly favoured by Dutch ladies of the period. Other colours were brown, blue, yellow, pearl grey and red, nearly always combined with black. It is difficult to say what materials would be used but velvet and satins were universal for formal wear. For everyday woollen cloths and linens would probably have been used. Gone was the Spanish vogue for embroidered, gem-studded gowns, simplicity (by contrast) was the key-note of the period.

Women of the poorer classes

Wives of farmers and labourers favoured the white linen head-covering, often close-wrapped and tied beneath the chin, and occasionally topped by various shaped felt hats. The skirt was often looped up out of the way showing the short coloured petticoat which disclosed the thick stockings and plain shoes, often home-made. A kerchief of linen was tucked into the low neck of the gown (which was usually of some serviceable colour greyish-blue, brown, red, or rusty-red. Strangely enough, black does not seem to have been very popular among the poorer women. The crisp white square, worn outside the bodice, so beautifully folded over the shoulders and pinned over the bosom, typical of the Dutch lady-of-the-house did not allow freedom of movement and was not used by the working woman except for high days and holidays. A dark apron for everyday and a white one for Sundays completed the costume.

Children

Children were dressed like their parents from about the age of five. Boys wore plumed berets and sometimes had basqued doublets in place of jackets. Tiny girls often wore their hair hanging loose and had little close bonnets embroidered or trimmed with brocade and ribbons and sometimes had narrow cloaks fastened to the shoulders of the gown by ribbons or buttons or leading strings attached in the same manner. The portraits of Elisabeth and Joanna van Riebeeck in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam show them wearing the little close caps so popular for children. Elisabeth has a square kerchief folded over her shoulders and wears a dainty white apron over her looped up overskirt. Her petticoat and cloak (or leading-strings?) are red. We see that children's pinafores had fitted bib-fronts coming to a point at the waist where the skirt of the pinafore was put on with fine gathers. Joanna has a square lace-edged collar and her blue dress has trimming to simulate a V opening. They both have gold braid trimmings on their caps and their chemise sleeves are turned back over the sleeve proper. Note the plumed beret under Joanna's hand.
Babies of both sexes wore skirts to the ground and had quaint little caps reminiscent of the modem flying helmet, in shape.

Historical Costumes

A contemporary portrait of Jan van Riebeeck, painted some time before his departure to the Cape, shows a young man with hair reaching to the shoulders, a slightly drooping moustache, and a tuft below the lower lip. His small collar, trimmed with bobbin-lace, is fastened with a cord ending in tassels. A white shirt-sleeve is turned back over the doublet (a close-fitting garment reaching from the neck to just below the waist) in the form of a cuff, while a cloak is draped over the right shoulder and held by the left hand. The buttons on the doublet, which may have been covered in the same material, are visible. The doublet, only partially seen in the portrait, was sometimes worn untrimmed, and sometimes ornamented with braid, fringe, or loops of ribbon. The shirt-sleeves may show through slashes and at the wrists. Fairly wide breeches would reach the knees and be trimmed in the same fashion as the doublet. The hat would have a broad brim and a rather high crown, and the shoes would be decorated with ribbons or rosettes. In later fashions the breeches degenerated into petticoat-breeches, but whether Van Riebeeck wore them is questionable. He describes the Hottentots as wearing 'dressed ox-hides as handsomely on one arm, and with as much dignity of gait, as any swaggerer in the Fatherland ever carried his cloak over shoulder or arm'. (Van Riebeeck's own costume in the Heerengracht statue in Cape Town represents the dress of the late and not the middle 17th century. It is more likely that he wore a cloak, thrown over one shoulder, than a coat; and the shoulder-pieces are quite out of place, having gone out of fashion before he reached the Cape.)

Young men, officers and soldiers wore hats with feathers. Horsemen wore boots having bucket-top uppers, into which the tops of the boot-hose fell. A sash shoulder-belt was worn over the right shoulder, with the sword on the left side. The military also had sashes, but no real uniforms were worn, except that the costume was often a little more colourful than usual. Some soldiers wore jerkins of leather or heavily padded woollen material; others had armour for protection during combat.

In contrast with the statue of Van Riebeeck, that of his wife, Maria, is pleasing and satisfactory. In a portrait she is shown with a small cap, a collar edged with pillow-lace, and, vaguely, trimming on her bodice. The costume would consist of an open robe with a petticoat showing at the front, and the bodice (sometimes shaped to a point) would have buttons, or horizontal ornamentation, or braid slanting from the armholes. The collar was made from a circular piece of cloth, edged with lace and folded slightly above the centre line, and then worn round the neck so as to produce a double-lace effect, and with a slope from the neck to the shoulders, which would be hidden. Sometimes the collar was square, and folded above the centre. Down the front of the dress was braid or other trimming, which continued along the hem. The dress and overgown often differed in colour and material; for instance, a gown might be of black silk and the dress of blue, with a trimming of gold lace down the front and round the bottom. The hair would be drawn straight back, with a close-fitting black cap having a tongue coming down over the forehead and going back in a moon-shaped sweep over the ears, near which were ornaments; at the join with the upper part covering the chignon were pearls. Lace-trimmed white caps were worn indoors; sometimes only a neckerchief was placed on the head. Worn at home were very attractive little jackets made of velvet, silk or damask, in white, black, red or violet, and edged with white fur. Shoes must have been very uncomfortable, as in indoor paintings they are often seen lying on the floor. The dress of servants was similar in style to that of the mistress, only more homely and often with the addition of an apron.

Much attention was paid to children's clothes. Boys were dressed like grown men, though small boys wore long dresses like those of their sisters, but are often depicted with a cap, collar or toy to distinguish them from girls. Collars were often like those of grown-ups. At the back of the dress, bands were frequently to be seen; these derived from the reins used when teaching children to walk. Boys and girls alike wore aprons.

The 18th Century

The end of the 17th century was marked by a fundamental change, and an entirely new garment, the waistcoat, appeared. The coat itself was collarless, and for neckwear the cravat (a strip of linen loosely knotted under the chin) was used. The breeches were very tight and fastened under the knees with buckles, with which the shoes were also adorned. Wigs were worn by all, and often the three-cornered hat or tricorne. This was the dress of Simon van der Stel and his officials, and also of the free burghers and Huguenots when they arrived at the Cape.

The same fashion, with variations, was worn throughout the 18th century. Baron G. W. van Imhof, who came to the Cape in the 1740's, is seen in his portrait dressed in the height of fashion, with velvet coat, satin waistcoat, cravat, wig, shoes with buckles, and a baton in his right hand. During this period wigs were really part of costume; W. A. van der Stel had several wigs.

In inventories of the time one finds items such as men's shirts, smoking-caps, red breeches with silver buttons, black hats, coats with silver buttons, wigs and wig-stands, a grey hat with feather, cravats with lace, a scarf with gold and silver fringe, and so on. Boys were still dressed in the same style as their fathers.

Tailor-soldiers were employed to make uniforms -one embroidered a very handsome coat for Governor Jan de la Fontaine. An officer wore a blue uniform embroidered with gold; cadet officers had a uniform of red cloth with silver braid, the hat being trimmed with point d'Espagne (Spanish lace); a sergeant wore blue cloth with red lining, two rows of half-inch (1.3 cm) braid, and a hat with a single band of braid. A soldier's coat, waistcoat and breeches were made of blue kersey (a woollen material) with brass buttons; stockings were red and shoes black; and the hat had a gold lace band. Slaves employed as police assistants wore a short, grey coat with blue lapels, waistcoat and breeches; ordinary slaves had a jerkin and breeches of coarse material. When Ryk Tulbagh enforced the Company's law against luxurious living at the Cape, specific items mentioned were the trains worn by ladies and the large umbrellas.

The everyday clothes of a farmer consisted of a check shirt, a long-sleeved waistcoat, breeches, a hat that was not turned up, and veld-shoes made by himself. When he came to town he wore his smart blue suit. By the end of the century the coat was cut away in front, showing the short waistcoat. It was then that boys began to wear long trousers and a short jacket.

The 17th century produced great changes and variations in women's clothes. With the end of the century came bunching of the skirt at the back and sides, often ending in a train. The petticoat was frilled and ornamented. The neck finish was lace or a fichu, and on the elbow of the sleeves was a ruffle of lace. The fontange, made of gauze, lace, ribbon and pleated frills so that it stood up in front of the bonnet, became the fashionable head-dress.
In the 18th century the hoop reappeared in various shapes and sizes until it became the oblong hoop, wide at the sides and flat at the front and back. The 'sack', made with small box-pleats, fell from the back of the neck to the hem of the dress, sometimes ending in a train. Petticoats were made of quilted silk with an elaborate embroidery of stitching, usually contrasting with the rest of the dress. A good example of this fashion is found in the Groot Constantia portrait of Hester Anna Lourens. She wears a blue dress, the petticoat being trimmed with festoons and ornaments; the bodice is trimmed with lace, a sprig fastening the fichu; the sleeves have flounces and three lace ruffles; a small bonnet rests on the smooth of the hair; the toe of a pink shoe peeps from the hem of her skirt. The everyday dress of the ladies was printed East Indian cotton or chintz, worn with starched hoop petticoats, and a silk gown for weddings and other formal occasions. The Bengali and Surat slaves were excellent embroiderers and competent needlewomen, making beautiful lace, embroidery, neckerchiefs and head-dresses, if the designs were supplied. As in the case of the men, female slaves wore clothes of coarse material and walked barefoot.

At the close of the century the elaborate dress disappeared and a simple dress with a short bodice and sash became the fashion. Young girls were dressed in precisely the same way as their mothers; they were, in fact, the first to wear this simplified dress.

19th Century

Men's coats now assumed the cutaway shape. Both neckcloths and bow ties shrank, breeches were still worn, and the top-hat made its appearance. Frequently the coat, waistcoat and breeches were of different colours and material. Among the younger set, however, trousers were slowly coming into fashion. These were tight-fitting and secured by straps under the soles of the boots. By the time the 1820 Settlers came to South Africa trousers were almost always worn. Overcoats now had many overlapping capes, and cloaks were also worn. Side-whiskers and choker collars (which reached above the chin and cupped it) became popular and were worn with a neckcloth or necktie.

In 1838, when the Voortrekkers went northwards, they also wore trousers made of corduroy, moleskin or buckskin, in black, brown or green; alternatively, the trousers were made of blue nankeen. They wore duffle coats and check or woollen shirts, but on Sundays changed into velvet coats with waistcoats of the same material, cashmere trousers, and fine linen shirts. Their jackets were short for everyday wear, while frock-coats were worn on special occasions. Sometimes garments were made of dressed leather which was as soft as cloth but hardened when it became wet.

About 1860 short jackets came into fashion. They were in evidence both as part of a complete suit or with trousers of different material. Sometimes the jacket was buttoned at the neck, at other times cut in a V shape with narrow lapels. There was also the single-breasted morning coat with a rounded-off front, one button being fastened at the neck and the others left undone to show the lower part of the waistcoat. The double-breasted frock-coat was black and of the same material as the rest of the suit. For evening dress a swallow-tailed coat was adopted a this time, and the tie was fastened in a small bow or knot. During this period knickerbockers came in for sports wear, and in the eighties the Norfolk jacket, also for sporting wear, was an innovation. Now, besides the top-hat, there were also the straw hat and caps of various shapes and materials. Among other things, young boys often wore either a jacket buttoning high into the neck, or a sailor blouse, in both cases with knickerbockers or shortened trousers; and on their heads they wore a sailor hat with ribbon hanging down the back, or a tam-o'-shanter.

After all the extravagance and luxury of the previous period, the 19th century preferred simplicity although in the later part of the period elegance and elaboration again appeared. In the early 1800's dresses were made of lawns, muslins, silks; out of doors, pelisses, spencers and shawls were worn. The skirt fell from immediately below the armpits, with no fullness in front, and was gathered at the back. Young girls wore shorter dresses with pantaloons. By the time the 1820 Settlers arrived, the waist drew ever nearer to the natural waist-line, and a reticule or hand-bag was carried because the material of the dress was too diaphanous to contain a pocket. Large hats, and also large poke-bonnets, were worn. About 1829 sleeves became enormous – veritable balloons -but by 1836 these were out of fashion. Now the waist returned to its normal place, with a point in front, and many petticoats were worn.

It was in this period that the Voortrekkers went north and took with them material to make women's dresses: chintz and prints for everyday wear, and silks for special occasions. The kappie was in the style of the poke-bonnet: when the bonnet was large at the beginning of the century, kappies were large, but now became smaller to match the smaller pokebonnets. Kappies were made of linen in three thicknesses or layers and then beautifully quilted. They were practical and could be frequently washed, starched and ironed.

By 1850, when the weight of the petticoats became intolerable, women returned to the old practice of wearing hoops or frames to make their dresses stand out, but now they were called crinolines. Little girls had wide dresses and pantaloons, trimmed with frills of embroidery. By about 1863 ladies could make simple dresses at home from paper patterns, and Willcox & Gibbs advertised: 'No home is complete without a Noiseless family Sewing Machine'. Shawls were worn, and a bride's trousseau required a fair number of them, in wool, silk or gauze. Toward the end of the sixties the fullness of the dress was drawn backwards, and by 1870 flexible draperies were added to the skirt at the back. The bustled skirt was trimmed with pleats, quillings, ruches and many other refinements, and for formal occasions had a train.

Small hats were perched forward on the hair. In the eighties the bustle became even more pronounced. Also worn was the dolman, a kind of close-fitting cape in which shaped seams resembled sleeves, trimmed with lace or fur. As the last decade of the century advanced, the silhouette changed and the skirt became bell-shaped, with the fullness at the back. Balloon or leg-of mutton sleeves were the fashion. A mantle was worn out of doors. At the close of the century sleeves became tight-fitting, and the bell-shaped skirt often had a train which was gracefully carried when walking. During the preceding years little girls wore dresses resembling those of their mothers but shorter, while at the end of the century they were wearing dresses which fell loosely from a yoke.

A description of all the changes in costume which were to develop with the 20th century would carry us too far. Shortly after the turn of the century men's feet left the ground in flight, and skirts also began to leave the ground and show more ankle, calf or knee.

Acknowledgments Africana Notes and News December 1951 Volume IX, No 1 and Standard Encylopeadia of South Africa.

An excerpt from the thesis “British Policy Towards the Malays at the Cape of Good Hope 1795-1850)

By Ghamim Harris B.A. (UCT) M.A. (U. W. Wash.)

The building of mosques was one of the most important activities of the Malay community at the Cape of Good Hope. Very few accounts, except that of Rochlin (1), have been written to examine this aspect of the development of Islam at the Cape. In recent years an excellent attempt was made by Bradlow and Cairns, on the Muslims at the Cape, with information on the Auwal mosque, (2) which other contemporary writers (3) have ignored.
There is no documentary evidence that an attempt was made to build a mosque before 1790. There is evidence that the Muslims at the Cape made an attempt to build a Mosque in the late 1790′s. The invasion by the British in 1795 and the Dutch defense of the Cape gave the Muslims the opportunity to enlist the support of the governing authorities to grant them permission to build a mosque. The Dutch authorities before 1750 did not condone the spread of Islam; they were only interested in converting slaves to Christianity. However, this all change with the publication of Van der Parra’s Plakaat, or Code of Laws (4); the Dutch followed more tolerable attitude towards Muslims at the Cape and in the East Indies. This action may have fostered the development of a positive attitude towards Muslim community in Cape Town.

The Malays had always held their religious services in prayer rooms set aside in the houses of imams. They now saw a changed attitude, which may lead to the building of a mosque.
The first literary reference to any kind of mosque was made by Thunberg:

On the 20th of June (1772), the Javanese here celebrated their new year. For this purpose they had decorated an apartment in a house with carpets, that covered the ceilings, walls and floor, At some distance from the furthest wall an altar was raised, from the middle of which a pillar rose up to the ceiling, covered with narrow slips of quilt paper and gilt alternately; from above, downwards ran a kind of lace between the projecting edges. At the base of this pillar were placed bottles with nosegays stuck in them. Before the altar lay a cushion, and on this a large book. The women, who were still standing or sitting near the door, were neatly dressed, and the men wore nightgowns of silk or cotton. Frankincense was burned. The men sat crosslegged on the floor, dispersed all over the room. Several yellow wax candles were all lighted up. Many of the assembly had fans, which they found very useful for cooling themselves in the great heat necessarily produced by the assemblage of a great number of people in such a small place. Two priests were distinguished by a small conical cap from the rest, who wore handkerchiefs tied about their heads in the form of a turban. About eight in the evening the service commenced when they began to sing, loud and soft alternately, sometimes the priest read out of a great book that lay on the cushion before him.

I observed them reading after the Oriental manner, from right to left, and imagined it to be the Alcoran they were reading, the Javanese being mostly Mohamedans. Between the singing and reading, coffee was served up in cups, and the principal man of the congregation at intervals accompanied their singing on the violin. I understood afterwards that this was a Prince from Java (5) , who had opposed the interest of the Dutch East India Company, and for that reason had been brought from his native country to the Cape, where he lives at the Company’s expense. (6)

Writing about the same time as Thunberg was at the Cape, George Forster, wrote of the Malays that: “A few of them follow the Mohommedan (sic) rite, and weekly meet in a private house belonging to a free Mohommedan, in order to read, or rather chant several prayers and chapters of the Koran.” (7)

The above two quotes support earlier testimony that Malays owned property and that the Dutch had become more tolerant after 1750. The Dutch tolerated the practice of Islam, while denying official recognition. In an earlier chapter it was pointed out that some plakaats were not really enforced, although they remained on the statute books.
The free Malays obtained the right to own land. Not necessarily because of changes in the legal system, but de facto, by the purchase of property, this was legally registered in the name of the owner. This is an acknowledgement that they had the right to purchase and own real estate. Moodie mentions many Black Free Burghers who owned considerable property. (8)

Since many of the Free Blacks were Malays, it is logical that many Malays owned real estate. In a footnote Moodie observed, “The opinion that the right of Burghership was an exclusive privilege of the Whites, seems to have no foundation in law, …” (9) Another early writer, who visited the Cape in 1799, Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, wrote “… among them I met many pious Mussulmans, several of who possessed considerable property.” (10) The records at the Deeds Office in Cape Town, supports the fact that many Malays owned property in the central and upper part of the Cape Town during the first two decades of the administration of the British Government at the Cape of Good Hope.

On the other hand, according to Commissioner de Mist (11) and Theal’s commentaries on the administration of the Batavian Republic, (12) the Malays did not enjoy the freedom to worship in public. Public worship also included the right to build a mosque and to use it as a public place of worship. For the liberal de Mist, imbued with the spirit of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” of the French Revolution, there was far too much opposition on the Council of Policy for him to extend freedom of religion to anyone, other than the members of the Dutch Reformed and the Lutheran Churches. The Batavian government at the Cape of Good Hope was not in control long enough to enforce their liberal ideas nor did they have the support of the majority of the white inhabitants.

In the late 1790′s some Muslims, among them Tuan Guru (Imam Abdullah Kadi Abdussalaam), and Frans van Bengal petitioned the British authorities for a mosque site, but were refused. Barrow wrote, “… The Malay Mohomedans (sic), being refused a church performed their public service in the stone quarries at the head of the town. (13)” This statement by Barrow has not been corroborated by any other documentary evidence.
A statement by Samuel Hudson, who was chief clerk of the customs, confirmed the fact that permission was granted to build a mosque. Samuel Hudson was a keen observer of events and gives a graphic description of the people, their attitudes and events at the Cape during in the period from 1798 to 1800.

The heads of them (Muslims) have petitioned the government and obtained permission to erect a church or mosque for celebrating their public worship, so that in a few months we shall see a temple dedicated to Allah and the Mohametan religion openly professed. (14)

Theal stated that The Muslims petitioned General Janssen for a mosque site. This was granted because of the impending war against Britain. Although permission was granted for the building of a mosque, the actual building did not begin, because of the invasion and occupation of the Cape by the British. Later the Muslims building on this strength again petitioned the new British Governor Sir George Yonge to build a mosque. This was their petition:

To His Excellency the Right Honourable Sir George Yonge, Baronet, and Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, one of His Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council, Governor and Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Castle, Town and Settlement of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and the Territories and Dependencies thereof, and Ordinary and Vice Admiral of the same.

The most humble Petition of the inhabitants of Cape Town professing the Mohometan faith:

The aforesaid humble Petitioners beg permission to approach your Excellency with all possible humility, and to represent to your Excellency that they labour under the greatest distress of mind by having no place of worship in which they may pay their adoration to God, conformably to the principles of their religion. They assure themselves your Excellency will admit nothing conduces so much to the good order of Society as a due observance of religious worship, and though they trust it will be allowed them that few enormities have been committed by the persons subject to your Majesty’s Government who profess their faith, yet they believe their being by your Excellency’s paternal indulgence furnished with the means of regular worship, that the manners and morality of their brethren will be greatly improved, and that they will thereby become more valuable members of society. They therefore implore your Excellency to grant then a little spot of unoccupied land of the dimensions of one hundred and fifty squareroods whereon to erect at their own expense a small temple to be dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. Your Excellency knows that the form of the religion requires frequent ablutions from whence it is indispensable that their mosque should be contiguous to water. A suitable spot is situated at some distance above the premises of General Vanderleur, and they humbly conceive there will be no objections to their little temple being there placed. They throw themselves at your Excellency’s feet, and beseech you to their humble and pious solicitations, and if your Excellency is pleased to give a favourable ear to their Petition they will by their conduct demonstrate they are not unworthy of your Excellency’s indulgence and protection.

And your Excellency’s humble petitioners will as in duty bound ever pray, etc., etc., etc.

Signed by “Frans van Bengal,” for himself and the rest of the inhabitants professing the Mohametan faith. (16)

The petition was signed by Frans van Bengalen in Arabic.
The request was approved by the Governor Sir George Yonge on January 31, 1800. Sir George wrote over the petition in his handwriting, “Approved.” ‘That was pending a report being prepared by the Proper Officer regarding the land described in the petition. Signed: ‘in G.W. Yonge, Government House, Jan’y 31 1800.’
On February 1, 1800, the Colonial Secretary, Andrew Barnard, wrote to the President and Members of the Burgher Senate:
Castle Cape of Good Hope
1 February 1800

Mr. President and Members of the Burgher Senate:
Gentlemen:

I am commanded by His Excellency the Governor and Commander in Chief to send you the enclosed petition from the Mohametan (sic) inhabitants of this place requesting that a piece of ground may be granted them for the purpose of erecting a place of worship thereon. His Excellency therefore desires that you will depute two of your members to examine the ground and report thereon if it may be granted without injury to the public or any individual.

I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant, Signed A. Barnard. (17)

Unfortunately there is no record that the Burgher Senate inspected the ground or sent the Governor a report either approving or disapproving the request. Opposition by members of the Burgher Senate may have been responsible that the Muslims did not receive permission to proceed with the building of a mosque. By that time the Batavian Republic had taken over the Cape under General Janssens.

During the Batavian period form1803 to 1806, the Malays again petitioned for permission to build a mosque. Janssens true to his liberal attitude readily agreed. The Batavian administrators had a greater sense of tolerance than the Dutch East India Company officials towards the Malays, but they were also realists since they needed the assistance of the Malays to defend the Cape against the British. The mosque site was granted, on the condition that the Malays commit themselves to defend the Cape militarily (18). Janssens thereupon formed the Malay Artillery. The officers trained them to be a very efficient fighting force. However, before Janssens could execute this promise, the British occupied the Cape in 1806. The Malay Artillery fought bravely to resist the invaders that General Baird with no hesitation confirmed the promise made by Janssens. Theal noted:

The Mohamedan religion was never prohibited in South Africa, though during the government of the East India Company people of that creed were obliged to worship either in the open air or in private houses. Permission to build a mosque, which was granted without hesitation, and a commencement was about to be made when the colony was conquered by the English. General Baird confirmed the privilege granted by his predecessor, and very shortly there was a mosque in Cape Town. Another was build during the government of Lord Charles Somerset. (19)

The initial mosque may have been built in the stone quarry. This is located near Chiappini and Castle Streets. Little evidence remains of this mosque. This mosque could have been a temporary building. Since no land was granted to the Muslims to build a mosque, Somerset had noted later that the governor had the right to grant citizenship and to issue land grants to any person or group of people. Somerset granted the Malays permission to build a mosque. This mosque was the Auwal Mosque. Unfortunately this led to a disagreement in the Malay community regarding the leadership or the appointment of an imam at this mosque.

Tuan Guru (Imam Abdullah) died in 1807. His death resulted in a major dispute within the Malay community. According to letters written to the editor of the South African Commercial Advertiser, Tuan Guru did not want Jan van Boughies to succeed him as Imam.

Cape Town, 17th Feb., 1836.

Sir, – I present you my best compliments, hoping that you will hearken to my prayer. Sir, I have seen in the paper that they published, that my father, Imaum Abdulla, did not raise Achmat, who is Imaum now. I can assure you Sir, that my father called Imaum Achmat in, and made him promise that he would take care of me and of my brother, according to my late father’s wish; and therefore I wish to state to you the truth if I am called upon for the circumstance: but, Sir, you do not think it is pleasant for me to hear these uncomfortable circumstances. I can assure you, that my father having given the situations over to Imaum Achmat, so he acted according to my father Imaum Abdulla’s wish: and I can assure you that since my father’s death, Imaum Achmat treated us two as his own children; in fact, he could not have done better towards us; and may I wish that he may live twenty years longer in this world, for his is like a father and mother to me; my whole power is from him. Sir, I beg leave to say, also, that it is my place to stand at the head of all, because I had to promise my own father Imaum Abdulla, that we were not to stand before we were of the age of 40 years: but, Sir, because I am not studied through the books, therefore I gave it over to Imaum Achmat until I shall be able to take his place. And I can assure you that none of the others ever assisted me since my father’s death – neither Abdul Wassa, nor Jan of Bougies; as for Manzoor, I don’t count him at all – he is nothing.

And I wish, Sir, that the Almighty God will never change my heart from that church, or from Imaum Achmat, and May I wish that no one will bury me but Imaum Achmat, and myself had to promise my brother, on his dying bed, (my emphasis) never to leave Imaum Achmat, and that Imaum Achmat is to teach me exactly like my own brother. And therefore I shall stay with him as long as I live, please God that he may see me on the righteousness of the world. Honored Sir, may I pray of you that you will do justice to me and to Imaum Achmat, and may I hope that you will see into the case, whether it is justice. And may I pray to the Almighty God that your heart will be good enough to do what you can for me and my father Imaum Achmat.

I am Sir, your most obedient servant.
Prince Abdul Roove. (20)

This is the first evidence of a major split in the Malay community. Although most services were previously conducted in the houses owned by the Free Malays, before the building of the first mosque, some services were still conducted by other imams in their own homes. Many mosques were built at the death, of an imam, because the congregation could not agree on a successor, or if a successor was chosen an opposition faction would break away to form their own group and build a mosque. There is evidence in the Cape Archives of two major civil cases questioning the right of certain persons to be imams. (21)
PALM TREE MOSQUE or Langar:
This split in the Malay communtiy occured in 1807. Jan van Bhougies and Frans van Bengal broke away from Guru’s congregation to form a new congregation.
Since Tuan Guru stated quite clearly, according to Prince Abdul Roove’s the letter to the editor of the South African Commercial Advertiser, that he did not want Frans van Bengal as the imam of his congregation.
The free Malay community in Cape Town was growing rapidly in Cpe Town and numbered 1,130 in 1806. (22) By 1811 the number of Muslims would have been as high as 1,500, not counting the slaves. It is quite obvious that one mosque would have been too small to meet the needs of all the Muslims.
In 1811 the land on which the Auwal Mosque is located was donated to Tuan Guru’s congregation for the building of the first mosque.

Immediately after the death of Tuan Guru Jan van Boughies and Frans van Bengal (Frank) purchased the house in Long Street and took legal transfer of the property on November 30, 1807. The upper floor of the two-storey house was converted into a large prayer hall or langar. (23)

This was the first time that a house was converted for use as a mosque, since imams formerly used rooms in their homes, which was set aside as a prayer room. Because this house was located in “die Lange Straat,” houses that were later converted as mosques were called, “Langar.”
This has been the popular interpretation of the origin of the term. However, subsequent research discovered a much more plausible explanation of the use of the term “langar” at the Cape to describe places of worship which were not mosques. The Encyclopedia of Islam provides the following description.

In the Dutch Indies, two kinds of mosques have to be distinguised, the mosque for the Friday service (Jumah) – these alone were called mosque (masagijid, also mistjid) – and simple houses of prayer. This second category is found all over the country, especially in smaller villages and owes its origin to private initiative and partly to public efforts; they have native names (langar [Javan], tajug [Sum], surau [Malay]). The langar, or whatever it may be called, of the village, is a centre at which the salat (prayers) can be performed, but it also serves other purposes of general interest. The upkeep of the building is the affair of the community and in particular one of the tasks of the religious official of the village. The upkeep of the other langars, erected by private individuals , is left to them. The building stands on its own site and is maintained by the founder or his descendants. The owner, cannot, refuse admission to strangers who desire to use it for salat or as shelter for the night. Such private chapels are always found near Mohammadan seminaries (Jav. passantren). We sometimes find that these langars are endowned as as wakf (Jav wakap). The village langar on the other hand has a more public character.

The Mosques, i.e. the masjid djami, are found in larger places usually in those which are also centres of administration. Their erection and maintenance is regarded as a duty of the Muslim community. (24)

In 1811 Burchell noted that, “The Malays have also a house dedicated and supported by them. This latter building is nothing more than a private dwelling house converted to that use.” (25) This information refers to the house of Jan van Bougies and Frans van Bengal in Long Street. In 1811 Frans van Bengal left Cape Town permanently and made Jan van Bhougies the sole owner and imam of the mosque in Long Street. This house was then transferred to the sole ownership of Jan van Bhougies. (26)
Although the legend on the door of the house that is home to the Palm Tree Mosque says 1777, that date refers to when the house was built, not when it became a mosque or a langar.

One has to consider Jan and Frans visionaries and persons committed to the religion and their principles. They were aware of that the population was growing and and that the Malay community did not have the financial resources to build a mosque, so they literally put their money where their mouths were.

Frans van Bengalen was involved in the military when he assisted the Dutch against the British. He was the Javaansche Veld Priester in the “Auxillarie Artillerie.” We know that he witnessed the translation of Tuan Guru’s will from the Arabic (Malayu written in Arabic characters) to Nederlands. The original will was copied, by hand, in the presence of Frans van Bengalen on May 2, 1807. The other witnesses to this signature, was a person by the name of Watermeyer and the other witnesses were Enche Abdul Malik and Enche Abdul Wasing. (27)

Frans van Bengal was called a “Field Priest” in the street directories of Cape Town. He was an important personality at the Cape Malay community. He, together with the French officer, Madlener, led the Javanese artillery at the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806. The other mention of Frans was in the records when he requested to manumit his slave, February 1789. (28)

Frans was one of those industrious slaves, who worked hard to accumulate his savings. By dint of good behaviour and determination and hard honest work to free him from the drudgery of slavery he bargained with his master for a price for his freedom. He was determined to raise the agreed amount of money, which he did and thus paid for his freedom. He continued with this attitude by raising more money, to become a fruit dealer and a fish seller. A few years later he purchased two slaves and a boat and furnished his house as those of other free Malays.

During this time slaves were apprenticed by their masters to become tradesmen. After they became qualified they were hired out to bring in a share of their labour to their masters. They were allowed to keep a portion for themselves. In this way many slaves were able to purchase their freedom.

Frans made it clear to his slaves that should one of them decide to embrace Islam, then that slave would be manumitted. He also made a condition with them that if they serve him faithfully over a specified period they would be freed and given sufficient money to start their own businesses. He was an honest man who kept his word. When the slave did not serve him faithfully, he was told, he would be sold. Several slaves received their liberty from him in this way. Business was good for Frans, and when the English took over the Cape in 1795 he was held in high esteem by the captains at the station, who recommended him as an honest person, who received work for several thousand rix-dollars at a time. Because of his stature as a respectable and honest businessman he made friends amongst the influential people of the Colony, like Admiral Sir Roger Curtis. He had become rich and deserved his honest gains. He was also instrumental in helping the Muslim community receive a grant of land on Lion’s Rump as a cemetery. Frans was often seen, when he was free from his numerous business endeavours using his leisure time working with his slaves building a wall around this cemetery to keep out the cattle that was always grazing at this sacred spot.

He intended to leave the Cape and had thus made over all his property to his wife and adopted children, and was determined to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca and to visit the grave of the Prophet Muhammad (O.W.B.P.) He had made several applications to captains of ships going to the east but have not been successful, until later in 1811, when he sold his half share in the Long Street Mosque to Jan van Bhougies and left the Cape permanently.
He married Mariam. At the time of their marriage, which happened sometime during the 1770′s? The name would have been Nederlands with an appelation “van de Kaap”. They had one son.

Frans’ name first appeared in the records when he manumitted his slave Februarij in 1789. He also signed the petition to Governor Janssens in 1794 for a mosque site, before the British occupied the Cape. He lived at 21 Longmarket Street, before he moved to Long Street.

Frans van Bengalen’s partner in the purchase of the Palm Tree Mosque was Jan van Boughies or rather, Enche Rajap Boughies. His will stated that he was a free man and his wife, Samida van de Kaap, a free woman. He was another one of those persons of whom there are many legends generated in oral history and void of documentary evidence. Jan van Bhougies was not White. The appellation “van Bhougies” was used because he came from Bhougies, in the East Indies.

The opinion that he was white was because his house was the first house in Long Street to have had a prayer room set aside as a mosque. Jan van Bougies owned this house at a time when Malays weren’t generally allowed to own land. Jan van Bougies was the only other person, besides, Tuan Guru, in South Africa to have transcribed the Quran from memory. The last page of the Quran, written in Malayu with the Arabic script, indicated that his monumental task was completed after Assar on the 14th day of Jamaadiel Thani (29) in the year of 1218 A.H. (30) of the Prophet (O.W.B.P.) (31) by Enche Rajab Bougies (Jan van Bougies), son of Jafaar Abu Nya Yakiem. The Quran (32) was passed on to Imam Mammat, (33) who was the successor of Jan van Bougies (Jan van Batavia).
The date corresponds to approximately September 30th 1803 A.D and the translation was made by Hajjie Achmat Brown.

Jan van Bhougies died in 1845, at the age of 112. This age must have been according to the Islamic calendar. This was quite an achievement to live to such a ripe old age. His will made in 1811 he described himself as a free person. He was at that time a man of property who accumulated enough money to have a half share in the purchase of the Long Street property, of which he later assumed full ownership. In 1848 his wife, Samida van de Kaap made her will in which she stipulated that the house in Long Street, used by her late husband, Jan van Bhougies, as a Mohammedan church should be left to the then priest, Maamat van de Kaap, elders, and deacons of the Church of Jan van Bhougies. After their deaths it shall not be sold, pawned or rebuilt, and it will remain the sole property of the Mohammedan congregation under the name of The Church of Jan van Bhougies. Jan van Bhougies also owned a house at 19 Long Street, which was worth £300 at that time. This is quite a princely sum of money in 1845. The administration of his estate was ordered by the Supreme Court. The file on his estate was closed on 11th July 1872.

Samida’s will transferred the property in Long Street, which housed the Church of Jan van Bhougies to Maamat, who was the sole survivor of all the persons named in the will, and who was then the imam.
Samida’s will led to a protracted civil case which, commenced on February 26th 1866, when the case of Ismail and others, Imams, Gatieps and Bilals of the said church came before Justice J. Bell.

“Mammat, the priest who was a member of the corps, was wounded in the battle.” (34) He died at the age of 104 in 1864. His obituary, in a local newspaper, said: “He was much respected by the Malay population, and deservedly so, having led a good life, and devoted his services to the cause of his religious calling with credit to himself and satisfaction to those with whom he came into contact.” The age is most probably according to the Islamic calendar. According to the Gregorian calendar he would be over 100 years old. He was listed in the street directories of Cape Town between 1811 and 1834 as a fisherman.
When the Javanese artillery was formed in 1804, Imam Maamat served under Madlener and Frans van Bengal, at the Battle of Blaauwberg. He died at the age of 104 in 1864 and his obituary, in a local newspaper, said: “He was much respected by the Malay population, and deservedly so, having led a good life, and devoted his services to the cause of his religious calling with credit to himself and satisfaction to those with whom he came into contact.” (35) He was listed in the street directories of Cape Town between 1811 and 1834 as a fisherman.

In 1862 Mahmat executed a deed, based on the will, appointing the defendants to be the imam, Gatieps and Bilals of the Church of Jan van Bhougies. However, he gave himself the right to dismiss any of those persons and appoint others in their stead. He also stated that the house should be transferred to those persons who were last mentioned in this deed and who were still living. Mamaat died in 1864. Between the transfer in 1861 and Maamat’s death, the plaintiffs, left the congregation, because of a dispute with Imam Maamat. According to the evidence the defendant, Ismail, performed all the duties of the Imam, because Imam Maamat was not able to perform those duties due to infirmity. He performed these duties with the full consent and support of the congregation.

The court held that Imam Maamat did not have the power to make the appointments by deed. Under the circumstances they were entitled to be held as duly appointed officers of the church and would be entitled to hold the premises in trust for the congregation. The plaintiffs also, did not lose their rights when they left the church to avoid confrontation with Imam Maamat, and were still entitled to join the service and the congregation at any time they desired. The judge also stated the both custom and law was proved that the senior Gatiep would succeed the deceased as imam. Lastly there is no provision in law or in custom that the imam has the sole right to appoint anyone to succeed him as imam.

The dispute in the mosque occurred when Gatiep with the greatest seniority, Hajjie Danie, returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca and started a campaign to change the manner in which the services were to be conducted. He obtained the key to the mosque and immediately excluded Imam Maamat from the mosque. Imam Maamat took legal action against Danie and others to re-instate him as imam and to have the keys return to him. This action resulted in Imam Maamat being return to his position as imam, which restored his control over the congregation. Danie and his congregation left the Mosque of Jan van Bhougies to establish their own “langar” in a private house. Maamat executed a second deed appointing Ismail as his successor and confirmed the other defendants in their previous positions as Gatieps and Bilals. Danie was the next senior Gatiep and Ismail was the Gatiep next in succession. This action effectively prevented Danie from again usurping the role as imam.

He died intestate, only a death noticed was filed. The death notice was filed on March 27, 1871. On March 27, 1871 an edict was published for a meeting to be held on May 9, 1871 regarding the Estate Late Imam Maamat. On June 9, 1871 the minutes of the meeting indicated that Letters of Administration was granted to Gatiep Moliat as Executive Dative with Kaliel Gafieldien, Mishal Kalieldeen, William Humphrey and Arthur Crowley as sureties. The liquidation account was filed on July 15, 1872.

Auwal Mosque:
Saartjie van de Kaap, the wife of Imam Achmat, who was one of Tuan’s Guru’s Ghateebs (36) donated the land in Dorp Street (Wallenberg) to build the Owal Mosque.

In 1811 Imam Achmat and Prince Abdul Raouf took over a three lot parcel of land on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets to build a mosque.(37) The site was owned by Saartjie van de Kaap. Her name indicates she was born at the Cape, because slaves were given names in that manner during the early reign of the D.E.I.C. The property was given to the Muslim community in perpetuity. She was the first female Malay land-owner in Cape Town. She gave the land as a gift to the Muslim community for the building of a mosque. The mosque (38) and a house were built on this site. The house was to serve as a rectory for the imam. Another house was added later on the site; on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets. Imam Achmat in his evidence, given to the Governor in 1825, confirmed the existence of this mosque. (39) The Auwal Mosque is regarded as the first mosque built in Cape Town. At this time it was not called the Auwal Mosque, it was called the Buitengracht Mosque. This mosque was built before 1814. General Craig gave the Malays permission to build this mosque. Contrary to popular opinion, and the date on the minaret, that the mosque was built in 1840, it was built earlier before 1814. It was built for Tuan Guru’s son, Abdul Raouf. However, Imam Abdul Raouf did not immediately assume leadership of the congregation. He only became imam on reaching the age of 40. (40) Imam Achmat was not to become imam after Guru’s death. However, he did become imam before Abdul Raouf reached the age of 40.

The land on which the Owal (Auwal) mosque is located and the adjoining house, is still registered in the name of Saartjie van de Kaap according to the records at the Deeds Office in Cape Town. The above property was first registered in the name of Saartjie van de Kaap on 13th February, 1809.

The properties were originally registered in the names of Douw Steyn. On December 16, 1777 they were transferred from the Estate of Douw Steyn to Jan Minnie, who later transferred the properties to Coenraad Frederick Faasen on September 30, 1784. Faasen transferred it ten years later to Coridon of Bengal on September 26, 1794. He appears to be the first Free Black owner of the property and may have set a trend for the acquisition of nearby properties by Muslims. Cathryn, also a Free Black, inherited the properties from her husband and on his death, became the sole owner of the property. Although Saartjie van de Kaap was already married to Imam Achmat the property was transferred to Saartjie in her maiden name. This didn’t make a real difference since Muslim marriages were not legally recognized. On February 13, 1809 Cathryn transferred the property to her daughter Saartjie van de Kaap.

Saartjie van de Kaap was an independent and strong willed lady who was able to run a household, raise seven children and run her own business at the same time. She has much to be admired when one considers the period during which she lived. The African Court Calendar and Almanac of 1811 listed her as owner of the Preserved Fruit Shop at 2 Boom Steeg. She also listed her as washerwoman at 28 Buitengracht Street. Another listing shows her as the owner of a retail shop at 20 Keerom Street. Her husband, Imam Achmet van Bengalen was listed as a Malay priest living at 42 Dorp Street. In 1821 she was listed as a seamstress at 2 Spin Steeg. Imam Achmet was listed in 1830 at 40 Dorp Street. The information indicates a lady with varied interests and business who was quite an entrepreneur for her day. It could have meant she owned these businesses at different periods, since that the family address was consistent with the location near the Owal Mosque in Dorp Street.

There still exists a belief that Saartjie van de Kaap was White. This was because of the official government position that only Whites or baptized Free Blacks could own property, both Cathryn and Coridon of Bengal were neither, although they still acquired freehold rights and became the registered owners of the property. Both Saartjie and Coridon were Muslims. They were able to purchase the properties and had it registered in their names. The information of the street directories indicate she was a woman with strong business acumen and was continually exploring new business opportunities. This act may have been responsible for her being thought of as a White person. It is rather unfortunate that the oral history and the myths surrounding the acquisition of these sites are not supported by documentary evidence. The other myth is the site was taken over by the Muslim congregation as early as 1794, when Coridon of Bengal bought this site.

Saartjie van de Kaap left the properties in her Estate to the Muslim community to be used as a mosque “as long as the government of the colony should tolerate the practice of the Mohammadan religion.”
She was blessed and fortunate to witness the building of a mosque on that site during her lifetime. According to Saartjie’s will there were four daughters, Noran, Somila, Jumie, and Rosieda and three sons, Mochamat (Muhammad), Hamien and Sadiek. Hamiem became an imam later. He was one of the signatories of a petition to Governor regarding the Khalifa.

It is interesting to note that many Muslims, whose last names was their father’s first name, thus Mochamat became Mochamat Achmat, born 1837, who in turn was the father of Gamja Mochamat Achmat, who died in 1915. This also follows the Islamic tradition but leaves out the “Ibn” (son of appellation). The other problem that one faces with the names of these individuals is that the White clerks who recorded there names on official documents had no idea how to spell them and would write the name as it it sounded to them. Another reason was the standard of literacy of these Muslims. They were not literate in Nederlands or in English so that they had to make a cross on official documents and were not always able to verify the correct information contained in those documents. The majority of them who left estates and wills, signed their names in Arabic, but had to trust their attorneys that they would implement their wishes correctly.

The following letters give a further insight into the problems of the Muslims community regarding the Imam at the Owal mosque.

Honoured Gentlemen,

I fall at your feet and entreat your forgiveness for thus intruding on your time, but I feel it my duty to add a few words. I can declare that Prince Emaum Abdulla, when he became weak, made Rujaap Emaum; who did not live long, at his death Prince Emaum Abdulla made Abdulalim, Emaum. I can also declare that before the death of this Prince, he sent for Achmat, and fully explained to him our Laws and Regulations, which Achmat swore to follow and never alter, it was also the wishes of this Prince – that Achmat would assist Abdulalim in performing his duties, this Emaum being very weak, and that Achmat would not leave him so long as he lived, which orders Achmat observed, until Emaum Abdulalim’s death. At the death of Emaum Abdulalim Serrdeen became Emaum; and at his death Achmat became Emaum. Before the death of the Prince Emaum Abdulla, he said to me and many other of his scholars – that it was his wish that we should all go to Achmat, and remain with him, and he would instruct and direct us in all things necessary which I did, and still remain with him.

This letter was signed by Abdolbazier. Similar information was contained in another letter written by Abdol Barick. (42)

Honoured Gentlemen.

I declare that when I was a scholar of Prince Emaum Abdulla, there was no church for our religion but afterwards there were so many Islams in the Cape that it was necessary to have a church; so Prince Imaum Abdulla made a church of the house of Achmat, which still stands; the second (Imam after) of Prince Imaum Abdulla was Rujaap, and I was a scholar of the Prince E. Abdulla. About this time Emaum Rujaap died; at which period Prince Emaum Abdulla made Abdulalim, Emaum; and me Clerk. It was Emaum Abdulalim’s wishes, that after his death Sourdeen should become Emaum, which took place; and I became under Priester, and Achmat was second of Emaum Sourdeen; so that at his death Achmat was Emaum. All I have to add is that from that time until now, I have never had reason of complain of our regulations. My prayers and supplications are for the welfare of our country and King, and I constantly offer up my prayers that the Almighty may shower down his blessings and prosperity on our Emaum, and all the worthy gentlemen of our Government.

I remain with respect, Honored Gentlemen,
Your humble servant,
ABDOLBARICK. (43)

In 1825 Imam Medien declared that there were two large mosques and five smaller ones in Cape Town. (44) The smaller ones would most probably be houses with prayer rooms. Imam Achmat confirmed this and added further:

I have officiated for many years, and for the last three I have been high priest. My predecessor, who died about three years ago, was the first to have been allowed to officiate and build a place of worship in Dorpstreet, where I reside. General Craig permitted him to erect it, and allowed the exercise of the Mohametan worship. This had not been permitted by the old Dutch government, but General Janssens gave authority for when the Dutch resumed the government, and when he enlisted the free Malays to serve as soldiers.

What number of places of worship has been erected? -

We have two regular ones that are acknowledged; the other is in Long-street. There was originally but one. The second was erected by a man named Jan; in consequence of a separation, he is not acknowledged by us. There are many persons who officiate as priests and instruct the people but they are not authorized to do so.

What number of people attend your mosque? –
About 50 attend every Friday, and there may be from 80-90 who belong to the mosque. There is no room for their families to attend. (45)

Imam Achmat states quite clearly that there were two established mosques in Cape Town; The Owal Mosque in Dorp Street and the mosque in Long Street. The latter one he states quite clearly was established because all split in the Malay community. It is also implied he would like to be responsible for “acknowledging” mosques and imams, hence his self-styled title, “high priest.” One can also infer from Imam Achmat’s statement that the first mosque, built in the quarry was not recognized as a mosque. He states clearly that the first mosque was the one in Dorp Street.

The Rev. John Campbell, who visited the Cape, wrote a description of the Jumah prayers held on Friday February 11, 1814 in the Auwal mosque.

On Friday, the 11th February, I visited a Mohametan (sic) mosque. The place was small; the floor was covered with green baize, on which sat about a hundred men, chiefly slaves, Malays and Madagascars. All of them wore clean white robes, made in the fashion of shirts, and white pantaloons, with white cotton cloths spread before them, on which they prostrated themselves. They sat in rows, extending from one side of the room to the other. There were six priests, wearing elegant turbans, a chair having three steps up to it, stood at the east end of the place, which had a canopy supported by posts, resembling the tester of a bed without trimmings. Before this chair stood two priests, who chanted something, I suppose in the Malay language, in the chorus of which the people joined. At one part of it the priests held their ears between the finger and the thumb of each hand, continuing to chant, sometimes turning the right elbow upwards and the left downwards, and then the reverse. After this form was ended, one of the priests covered his head and face with a white veil, holding in his hand a long black staff with a silver head, and advanced in front of the chair. When the other had chanted a little, he mounted a step, making a dead halt; after a second chanting he mounted the second step, and in the same way the third, when he sat down upon the chair. He descended in the same manner.

The people were frequently, during this form, prostrating themselves in their ranks as regularly as soldiers exercising. A corpulent priest then standing in the corner, near the chair with his face to the wall, repeated something in a very serious singing manner, when the people appeared particularly solemn; after which the service concluded. (46)

Further confirmation was the statement by Campbell was the statement, “… holding in his hand a long black staff with a silver head …” This “staff” was Tuan Guru’s tonka. The tonka is a staff which the imam holds in his hand during the sermon (khutbah). The silver head is the identification mark of Tuan Guru. Since Campbell visited the mosque in 1814, is clear evidence that the mosque was completed before 1814.

In 1822 William Wilberforce Bird noted that the Malays met in private houses and rooms. It appears that this civil servant was not aware that there were two mosques in Cape Town. It is strange that such a well known civil servant was not aware of the Auwal Mosque was built, so that in 1822 it went unmentioned in an account.

The Malays, who are supposed to amount to nearly three thousand, carry on their devotion in rooms and halls fitted up for the purpose and occasionally in the stone quarries near the town. One of their Imams is said to be a learned man, well versed in the Hebrew and Arabic tongues, and in Al Coran, which he chants with taste and devotion. It must be acknowledged with shame and sorrow, that Mohametanism makes great progress amongst the lower orders at the Cape. But where there is the greatest zeal, there will be the most effect. (47)

Bird clears up a very important point, that in spite of building the Auwal Mosque, the stone quarry continued to be used as a place of assembly and a place for prayer. It could also be because the original mosque was still there, and he simply thought the quarry was used as an “open air” assembly.

Tuan’s Guru’s sons, Abdul Raouf and Abdul Rakiep followed their father, but were only able to become imams when they reached 40. A person by the name of Isaac Muntar who appeared as a witness in this civil action in the civil action of Achmat Sadick and Others vs. Abdul Rakiep or Ragiep, August 28 to September 2, 1873; stated that Imam Abdul Roove was the first imam, although Imam Achmat van Bengalen was the imam but had the step aside when Imam Abdul Roove reach the age of majority (40 years). Witnesses also mentioned that Imam Abdul Rakiep was imam at the same time as his brother. Both of them became imams at the Auwal Mosque.

The court case, Achmat Sadick and Others vs. Abdul Rakiep verified this information, but it calls the mosque in dispute, the Buitengracht Mosque. The civil action was brought by the youngest son of Imam Achmat and Saartje van de Kaap, Achmat Sadick against Tuan Guru’s grandson, Abdul Rakiep, the son of Imam Abdul Roove. The plaintiffs, Achmat Sadick and Others, wanted to evict the Imam Abdul Rakiep, because he had become a Hanafee, since he was taught by Abu Bakr Effendi. Although Imam Abdul Rakiep was awarded the judgment with cost and thus won the civil suit. One could say he won the battle but lost the war, because he actually lost the role of imam of that mosque. The descendants of Tuan Guru moved to the Mosque in Main Road, Claremont, while the Achmat family resumed their roles as imams of the Owal Mosque. This was evidence in the book by Bradlow and Cairns on the family of Imam Achmat. Imam Mochamat Achmat’s will stated that he appointed his son, Amienodien Gamja imam at the “Mohammedan Church” corner of Dorp and Buitengracht Streets. The inference is that the present house on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets was a later addition.

The mosque that was called in the civil case, the “Buitengracht Mosque” and the Nurul Islam Mosque, located at 134 Buitengracht Street is not the same mosque. The following information will help to explain the history of the two mosques. The land on which the Owal Mosque is located is designated as Erf #2839. This parcel of land was transferred to Coridon van Bengal on September 26, 1794, and was later transferred from the Estate late Coridon van Bengal to Saartjie van de Kaap on February 3, 1809. Coridon was Saartjie’s father. The other lot, which is Erf # 2840 was transferred from Cathryn van de Kaap, the mother of Saartjie van de Kaap, to Saartjie van de Kaap on December 6, 1811. The mosque site is still in the name of Saartjie van De Kaap, when I examined the records at the Deeds Office in Cape Town. The other lot, Erf #2840, was owned by Achmat van Bengalen. That lot was on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets.

In the 1873 court case , Sedick vs Rakiep (Tuan Guru’s grandson) the Owal Mosque was referred to as the Buitengracht Street Mosque. The mosque at that time was located on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets.
The present Buitengracht Street mosque is Erf # 2797. (48) The Erf #2797 was transferred by JHM Isleb to Jassar Mohamed Saadien in 1905. Erf #2797 was subidivided into Erf #2797 (Lot B) and Erf # 2796. Erf #2797 or Lot B was later transferred from Jassar Mohamed Saadien to the Nurul Islam Congregation on September 30, 1912. On November 2 1928 The Noorel Islam Congregation sold that lot to Imam Gabebodien Hartley. On June 6, 1939 the property was transferred by Imam Gabebodien Hartley to the Trustees of the British Nizan of Afghanistan Society. This mosque is today called the Nurul Islam mosque. The records of the Deeds office show conclusively that the mosque could only have been built after 1912, when it was transferred to the Nurul Islam Congregation.

The Bulding of the Second Mosque

After the emancipation of the slaves there was a definite spurt in the growth of Islam. This led to further efforts to build another mosque in Cape Town. This mosque was built about 1850 in Chiappini Street.
Mayson describes a visit to the mosque in 1854:

There is only one mosque in Cape Town. This large, substantial but plain and unminaretted edifice has lately been erected with the concurrence and favoured by the patronage of the municipal authorities: with an implied guarantee that it was to be used by the Mohametans in common, irrespective of their misunderstandings. It is occupied by one section of them only. A smaller mosque was used before the present one was built; before its erection the Malays performed their religious services in the adjacent stone quarries. There are about twelve chapels or mosjids, for daily service, in the houses of superior priest. Each of these, as well as the mosque, contains a painted and arched recess at the end opposite the entrance, indicating the direction of Mecca; and is scrupulously clean. (49)

This description applies to the second mosque built in Cape Town. This mosque is the Jamia Mosque, located on the corner of Chiappini and Castle Streets, constructed about or before 1850.

This mosque site was granted by the British authorities in co-operation and exchange for their support in the border War of 1846 against the Xhosas. A description of their participation was given in an earlier chapter. Queen Victoria made good her promise of the mosque site as well as the rights to the land area in Faure, near the site of Sheik Joseph’s grave. The mosque site was originally owned by the Municipality of Cape Town and transferred to Imam Abdul Wahab in 1857. The two sites were granted in freehold to the Muslim community under the trusteeship of Imam Abdul Wahab. This mosque, because of the grant of the British authorities, had the British Coat of Arms above the Mighrab (or niche), and is the only one that had the feathers of the Prince of Wales above the mimbar (altar). For this reason the Jamia Mosque was sometimes called the Queen Victoria Mosque. (50) The first imam was Imam Abdulbazier, who was only Imam for a few months. He was succeeded by Imam Abdul Wahab in 1852.

This was the same mosque which Lady Duff Gordon visited on Friday, March 21, 1862.

I had just come from prayer, at the Mosque in Chiappini Street, on the outskirts of the town. A most striking site. A large room like the country ballroom with glass chandeliers, carpeted with a common carpet, all but a space at the entrance, railed off for shoes; the Caaba and pulpit at one end; over the niche, a crescent painted; and over the entrance door a crescent, an Arabic inscription and the royal arms of England! A fat jolly Mollah looked amazed as I ascended the steps; but when I touched my forehead and said ‘Salaam, Aleikoom,’ he laughed and said, ‘Salaam, Salaam,’ come in, come in! The faithful poured in, all neatly dressed in their loose drab trousers, blue jackets, and red handkerchiefs on their heads; they left their wooden clogs in company with my shoes, and proceeded, as it appeared to strip. Off with jackets, waistcoats, and trousers, with the dexterity of a pantomime transformation; the red handkerchief was replaced by a white skull-cap, and a long large white shirt and full white drawers flowed around them. How it had all been stuffed into the trim jacket and trousers, one could not conceive. Gay sashes and scarves were pulled out of a little bundle in a clean silk handkerchief and a towel served as prayer-carpet. In a moment the whole scene was as oriental as if the Hansom cab I had come in existed no more. Women suckled their children, and boys played among the clogs and shoes, all the time, and I sat on the floor in a remote corner. The chanting was very fine, and the whole ceremony decorous and solemn. It lasted an hour; then the little heaps of garments were put on, and the congregation dispersed, each man first laying a penny on a curious little old Dutch-looking, heavy ironbound chest, which stood in the middle of the room. (51)

In my interview with Imam M. Nacerodien in 1976 he stated that the mimbar and the tonga were the original ones that were used when the mosque opened in 1857. He claimed that the mosque was opened on November 9, 1857. He stated that this statement would be verified by an article in the Cape Argus of November 9, 1957, when they celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Jameah Mosque. Unfortunately I have not been able to verify these dates and the information.

The mosques in Cape Town were built in the same styles as the mosques in the East or in other Islamic countries. One reason for this could be the cost of building a mosque and the financial state of the Muslims. In 1861 an article on “Islam at the Cape” which appeared in the Cape Monthly Magazine, an unknown observer gives the following description about the Muslims of Cape Town:

Their mosques are assimulated externally as near as may be, to the style of Christian churches of the locality, and have precisely the appearance of the ‘Bethel’ of some English country place designed by the village carpenter. These structures are called, even by the Dutch, ‘Islamsche Kerk’, and we all remember that the priests, although they were probably put up to it, as a political manoeuvre, did actually petition the Colonial Parliament for a share of the sums voted for Ecclesiastical purposes.

The original building gave the appearance of a church. The only explanation I can offer for this is that the architect or the draughtsman was familiar with the appearance of a church and had never seen mosque.
A few years later a fourth mosque was built in Claremont. This mosque was built about 1855 (53) the site was donated by a Slamdien for the building of a mosque. A member of Abdul Raouf’s family became the imam at this mosque, and the trustee of the mosque was to be the imam at the Auwal Mosque in Dorp Street. Tuan Guru’s family became imams at this mosque. Their involvement at the Owal Mosque may have ended with the court case of Sedick vs Rakiep.

The evidence of the civil case, Sadick Achmet and Others vs. Abdol Rakiep indicated there was no Hanafee Mosque at the Cape by 1873. The Hanafee congregation decided to build a mosque. On December 12, 1881 Erf #2627 in Long Street was transferred from John Coenraad Wicht to the Moslem Sect Aghanaf. This mosque was completed shortly after it was acquired.

This has been an attempt to delineate the efforts to build mosques in Cape Town to serve the large and growing Muslim population during the administration of the British Government. Starting from a negative attitude in 1797 and developing towards a positive position, with the granting of the first mosque site in 1806. This grant acknowledged the Malays as an integral part of the population and de facto, their right to practice their own religion. Whether it was in fact an open admission of freedom of religion, which it appears to be, or it was an attempt to show the judicious and humanitarian attitude of the British authorities, is not clear. The development of Islam continued to grow and foster, and although it was a common policy of the British to grant church sites for all denominations, the Malays decided to apply for sites to ensure that this privilege applied to them as well. In spite of Theal’s assertion that another site was granted during the rule of Somerset, I have been unable to find any evidence of a mosque built during his administration. On the other hand, it may refer to the site of the Auwal Mosque. This site was not granted by Somerset, but he may have given them permission to build the mosque.

The last two sites were definitely an attempt by the British to offer the Malays complete freedom to practice their religion. British policies during this period seemed to have been more liberal, and definitely a positive reaction to a previous negative position as far as the administrations of various governors, and the Colonial Office, were concerned.

Footnotes:

1. S.A. Rochlin, “The First Mosque at the Cape,” South African Journal of Science, XXXIII (March, 1937) pp 1100-1105.
2. F.R. Bradlow and M. Cairns, The Early Cape Muslims, (Cape Town: Balkema 1978)
3. I.D. du Plessis, “The Cape Malays, (Cape Town: Balkema, 1972)
4. Roos, The Plakaat Books of the Cape.
5. Tuan Guru
6. Charles Peter Thunberg, Travels in Europe, Africa and Asia Made Between the Years 1770 and 1779. 4 vols. (London: Richardson, Cornhill and Egerton, 1796) I, pp. 132-4.
7. George Forster, A Voyage Round the World. pp. 60-61.
8. Moodie, The Record.
9. Ibid.
10. Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, Travels in Asia, Africa and Europe, I, p. 68.
11. De Mist, Memorandum.
12. Records, V, p. 120.
13. John Barrow, An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa in the Years 1797 and 1798. (London: T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1801) p. 427.
14. Cape Archives A602/9, Book No. 9, Hudson S.E., Manuscript Diary
16. Cape Archives, BO/154, Item 17, Incoming letter
17. Cape Archives, BO/154, item 236, Covering letter
18. It was because of this commitment that the Malays were formed into the Javanese or Malay Artillery, as it has been indicated in an earlier chapter.
19. George M. Theal, The History of South Africa Since 1795, (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1915) 5 vols. I, p. 4190.
20. South African Commercial Advertiser, February 27, 1836. The letter by Prince Abdul Raouf is printed in full.
21. Achmat Zadick and Others vs. Abdul Ragiep, August 28, 1873. and the civil case of Mahmat vs. Danie, 1866
22. George M. Theal, The History of South Africa Since 1795, (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1915) 5 vols. I, p. 419-420
23. This was called the Palm Tree Mosque (also known as the church of Jan van Bhougies). It was called a langar since it was located in the “Lange Straat” or Long Street. See another explanation in this chapter.
24. “Encyclopedia of Islam,” E.J. Brill, (London: 1913)
25. Burchell, Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, p. 55.
26. The information was obtained from records at the Deeds Office in Cape Town. The transfer took place on October 25, 1811. The house was later transferred from Frans van Bengal to Jan van Bhougies.
27. The will was written in Malayu using the Arabic script. It was witnessed by Frans van Bengalen on May 2, 1807.
28. Leibrandt, Requesten, p. 463.
29. The sixth month of the Islamic calendar
30. It is approximately September 30th 1803.
31. O.W.B.P. On Whom Be Praised refers to the Prophet Muhamad. Whenever his name is mention, a Muslim would say O.W.B.P.
32. This Qur’an is currently in the possession of my brother Imam Yaseen Harris. It was passed from Jan van Bhoughies to Imam Mammat. It was owned by my grandfather Hajjie Mohummad Ghanief Harries and then my father Imam Sulaiman Harris. We were fortunately to find a person who was able to translate the Malay, Hajjie Ahmad Brown.
33. He was appointed Imam after the death of Jan van Bhougies at the Palm Street Mosque.
34. Eric Aspeling, pp. 16-17. Maximilien Kollisch, pp. 36-37.
35. Ibid,
36. Assistant imams
37. This mosque was called “The Auwal Mosque.”
38. The building of this mosque on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets has caused some confusion., since the court records of Sadick Achmat and Others vs. Abdul Ragiep of August 28, 1873, refers to this mosque as the Buitengracht Mosque, whereas it was actually the Dorp Street Mosque or Owal Mosque,. The Nurul Islam Mosque in Buitengracht was not the one referred to in the court case. This latter mosque site was only transferred to the Nurul Islam congregation in 1905.
39. British Parliamentary Papers #50 of 1835, pp. 207-210.
40. South African Commercial Advertiser, February 27, 1836. The letter by Prince Abdul Roove is printed in full in this chapter.
41. South African Commercial Advertiser. February 27, 1836.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid. Similar letters were published from Imam Achmat, Achtardeen and Hagt.
44. British Parliamentary Papers #50 of 1835, pp. 207-210.
45. British Parliamentary Papers, #50 of 1835, pp. 207-210.
46. John Campbell Travels in South Africa, (London: Flagg and Gould, 1816), pp. 327-328.
47. W.W. Bird, The State of the Cape of Good Hope in 1822. p. 68
48. Erf #2797 This lot was first transferred by deed of transfer # 160 on 28th June 1811. This land was transferred 24th October 1905 by JHM Isleb to Jassar Mohamed Saadien. Part of this lot was then sold (Lot B) and became Erf # 2796 by JM Saadien on 30th September 1912 to the Noorel Islam Congregation of Cape Town. Erf # 2796 was then sold on 2nd November 1928 by the Noorel Islam Congregation to Gabebodien Hartley. He then sold it on 6th June 1939 to the Trustees of the British Mizan of Afghanistan Society.
49. John Schofield Mayson, The Malays of Cape Town, (Manchester: John Galt, 1861), pp. 21-22.
50. Mayson, p. 32.
51. Dorothy Fairbridge, ed. , Letters From the Cape by Lady Duff Gordon, (London: Oxford University Press, 1927).
52. Mayson, p. 32.

Representatives of the free burghers on the Court of Justice (the supreme court of judicature) and later on the Council of Policy at the Cape. In the exercise of their functions the burgher councillors were not confined by any standing orders. It was, however, customary for the Council of Policy to confer with them on legislation affecting the burghers, and in some instances retired burgher councillors were also invited to attend preliminary discussions in this regard. Only since about 1780 did the burghers regularly have representation in the Council of Policy.

The first burgher councillor was Steven Jansz Botma, appointed in 1657 to serve on the Court of Justice for a term of one year. After the first year the free burghers were directed to submit a list of names from among which Botma’s successor could be designated. Hendrick Boom was the nominee, but the authorities having increased the number of burgher councillors to two, Botma was retained. One of the two members was to retire in rotation every year. In 1675 the number was increased to three, and in 1686 to six. From the time of Jan van Riebeeck trivial matters came within the purview of the ‘Collegie van Commissarissen van Kleine Saken’, in which two burghers sat with two officials and a secretary.

It had become customary to leave punitive expeditions against the Bushmen in the hands of burgher commandos, and in 1715 the burgher councillors were required to levy the costs of the expeditions from the citizens of Cape Town, the heemraden being responsible for the levy from burghers in the hinterland.

By 1779, under the governorship of Joachim van Plettenberg, agitation among a group of colonists for greater representation in the management of their affairs had gathered considerable momentum. These burghers already referred to themselves as ‘Patriotten’ (patriots). Among the measures they proposed was the appointment of a sufficient number of elected burgher councillors to counterbalance the officials. A strongly worded petition was taken by Tieleman Roos of Paarl and others to the Netherlands . Although this document was even submitted to the States General, it proved of no avail, the Dutch ‘Patriotten’ being at that time in the minority.

The only notable success attained by the petitioners was the concession made by Van Plettenberg in his reply to the Council of Seventeen, that an equal number of burgher councillors and officials could be appointed to the Court of Justice. Neither Van Plettenberg nor the Seventeen would tolerate a position in which the Council of Policy would virtually be dominated by the burgher councillors. The system of burgher councillors continued until the first British occupation, and in 1796 the Burgher Senate took the place of burgher councillors.

BIBL. C. Beyers: Die Kaapse Patriotte 1779-1791 (1930); Cambridge history of the British Empire , vol. 8 (1936); G. M.

Theal: History of South Africa , vol. 3, 4 (‘964); Eric A. Walker: A history of South Africa (1928).

Boeren Beschermings Vereeniging

(Farmers’ Protection Society)

In 1878 a section of the Afrikaans-speaking farmers of the Cape resolved to form an organisation for the purpose of ‘watching over the interests of the farmers of this Colony, and protecting the same’. It arose, in the first place, from opposition to an excise duty imposed on liquor by the Cape parliament in 1878. Later aims of the association were: ‘to endeavour to have all those with an interest in farming registered as parliamentary voters, and to watch against the abuse of the franchise’. J. H. Hofmeyr (‘Onze Jan’) was its leader and its first representative in the Legislative Assembly. On 24 May 1883 the organisation merged with the Afrikaner Bond under a new name: Afrikanerbond en Boeren Beschermings Vereeniging.

Boer Generals in Europe

During the Second Anglo-Boer War 30,000 farm houses were destroyed, and in addition 21 villages (Ermelo, Bethal, Carolina, Amsterdam, Amersfoort, Piet Retief, Paulpietersburg, Dullstroom, Roossenekal, Bloemhof, Schweizer-Reneke, Harte beestfontein, Geysdorp and Wolmaransstad in the Transvaal; Vredefort, Villiers, Parys, Lindley, Bothaville, Ventersburg and Vrede – the last mentioned partly – in the Orange Free State). In extensive areas not a single animal was to be seen. In the Free State , for instance, only 700,000 out of approximately 8,000,000 sheep remained and one tenth of the cattle. The speedy reconstruction of the former Republics was a pressing necessity. In terms of Article 10 of the Treaty of Vereeniging £3,000,000 was granted for this purpose and in addition loans at 3% (without interest for two years). This amount was considered to be totally inadequate by the representatives of the Boer people at Vereeniging, and a head committee (M. T. Steyn, Schalk Burger, Louis Botha, C. R. de Wet, J. H. de la Rey and the Revs. A. P. Kriel and J. D. Kestell) was elected on 31 May to collect further funds. Generals Botha, De Wet and De la Rey were sent to Europe for this purpose. After cordial receptions in Cape Town, Paarl and Stellenbosch they left for England on 5 Aug. 1902. Huge crowds welcomed them in London, and they were presented to King Edward VII. On the Continent they were likewise enthusiastically cheered by thousands of people. (The Hague 20 Aug., Amsterdam11 Sept., Antwerp 19 Sept., Rotterdam 22 Sept., Groningen 27 Sept., Middelburg 30 Sept., Brussels 10 Oct., Paris 13 Oct., Berlin 17 Oct.). In a letter to Joseph Chamberlain dated 23 Aug. they requested an interview to discuss, inter alia, the following matters: full amnesty for rebels; annual grants for widows and orphans; compensation for losses caused by British troops; payment of the war debts of the Republics. At the interview on 5 Sept. Chamberlain stated that if he should accede to these requests a new agreement with the Republics would have to be drawn up and that could not be done. Thereupon the Generals published on as Sept. ‘An Appeal to the Civilised World’ in which they asked for further assistance to alleviate the dire distress. The result was most disappointing. Up to Jan. 1903 the ‘Appeal’ brought in only £116,810. This was possibly due to the unwillingness of the nations to continue assisting the Boers, who were now British subjects, and to the fact that Chamberlain had announced in Parliament on 5 Nov. that the Government would grant further loans if necessary. De Wet returned to South Africa on 1 November, Botha and De la Rey on 13 December.

Boer Prisoners of War – Camps

Generals De Wet, De la Rey and Botha, Germany, 1902

The approximately 27,000 Boer prisoners and exiles in the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) were distributed far and wide throughout the world. They can be divided into three categories: prisoners of war, ‘undesirables’ and internees. Prisoners of war consisted exclusively of burghers captured while under arms. ‘Undesirables’ were men and women of the Cape Colony who sympathised with the Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics at war with Britain and who were therefore considered undesirable by the British. The internees were burghers and their families who had withdrawn across the frontier to Lourenço Marques at Komatipoort before the advancing British forces and had finally arrived in Portugal, where they were interned.

Prisoners of war were detained in South Africa in camps in Cape Town (Green Point) and at Simonstown (Bellevue), and some in prisons in the Cape Colony and Natal; in the Bermudas on Darrell’s, Tucker’s, Morgan’s, Burtt’s and Hawkins’ Islands; on St. Helena in the Broadbottom and Deadwood camps, and the recalcitrants in Fort Knoll; in India at Umballa, Amritsar, Sialkot, Bellary, Trichinopoly, Shahjahanpur, Ahmednagar, Kaity-Nilgris, Kakool and Bhim-Tal; and on Ceylon in Camp Diyatalawa and a few smaller camps at Ragama, Hambatota, Urugasmanhandiya and Mt. Lavinia (the hospital camp). The internees were kept in Portugal at Caldas da Rainha, Peniche and Alcobaqa. The ‘undesirables’, most of them from the Cape districts of Cradock, Middelburg, Graaf Reinet, Somerset East, Bedford and Aberdeen, were exiled to Port Alfred on the coast near Grahamstown.

In the Bermudas, on St. Helena and in South Africa quarters consisted chiefly of tents and shanties patched together from tin plate, corrugated iron sheeting, and sacking, and in India and Ceylon mostly of large sheds of corrugated iron sheeting, bamboo and reeds. The exiles, whose ages varied between y and 82 years, occupied themselves in various fields, such as church activities, cultural and educational works, sports, trade, and even printing, and nearly all of them to a greater or lesser extent took part in the making of curios.

The exiles in Ceylon and on St. Helena were the most active in printing. Using an old Eagle hand press purchased from the Ceylonese, the prisoners of war in Ceylon printed the newspaper De Strever, organ of the Christelijke Streversvereniging (Christian Endeavour Society), which appeared from Saturday, 19 Dec. 1901, to Saturday, 16 July 1902. Other newspapers, which they published, mostly printed by roneo, were De Prikkeldraad, De Krygsgevangene, Diyatalawa Dum-Dum and Diyatalawa Camp Lyre. Newspapers issued on St. Helena were De Krygsgevangene (The Captive) and Kampkruimels.

The range of the trade conducted among the prisoners of war is evident from the numerous advertisements in their newspapers. There were cafes, bakeries, confectioners, tailors, bootmakers, photographers, stamp dealers, general dealers and dealers in curios. An advertisement by R. A. T. van der Merwe, later a member of the Union Parliament, reads in translation:

Roelof v.d. Merwe, Shop No. 12, takes orders for men’s clothing. Has stocks of all requirements.

Another, by C. T. van Schalkwyk, later a Commandant and M.E.C., may be roughly translated as follows:

Here in Kerneels van Schalkwyk’s cafe a Boer
Be he rich or be he poor
For money so little its spending not felt
Can have his tummy press tight on his belt.

In religious matters the exiles in overseas camps devoted their efforts in the first place to the establishment of churches. In most of the camps building material was practically unprocurable, with the result that most of the church buildings were patched together out of corrugated iron sheets, pieces of tin, sacks, reeds and bamboo. Pulpits were constructed from planks, pieces of timber, etc. There were a number of clergymen and students of theology among the prisoners; with them in the forefront and with the help of others who had gone to the camps for this purpose, congregations were founded and church councils were elected. From these developed Christian Endeavour Societies, choirs, Sunday-school classes for the many youngsters between 9 and 16 years of age, and finally catechism classes for older youths. Many a young man was accepted as a member of the Church and confirmed while in exile. Attention was also given to mission work, and funds were collected by means of concerts, sports gatherings, etc. Many of the prisoners died in exile, and the burial services as well as the care of the graves and cemeteries were attended to by their own churches.

In the cemetery of Diyatalawa 131 lie buried, and on St. Helena 146; in the Bermudas and in India a considerable number also lie buried. Through the years the Diyatalawa cemetery has been maintained in good order by the Ceylonese. Boer prisoners of war in the Bermudas were buried on Long Island. The graves themselves are neglected and overgrown with vegetation, but the obelisk erected in the cemetery on the insistence of the returning prisoners after the conclusion of peace is still in fairly good condition. It is a simple sandstone needle on a pedestal of Bermuda stone. The names of those buried in the cemetery and those who had died at sea on the voyage to Bermuda are engraved on all four sides of the pedestal.

Boer Prisoners of War with their handwork

Cultural activities covered a number of fields. At first debating societies were formed, and from these there developed bands, choirs and dramatic groups; theatrical, choral and other musical performances were given, festive occasions such as Christmas, New Year, Dingaan’s Day (now the Day of the Covenant and the birthdays of Presidents Kruger and Steyn and of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands were celebrated. Judging by the numerous neatly printed programmes, many of the concerts and other performances were of quite a high standard. Celebrating Dingaan’s Day at Ahmednager (India on 16 Dec. 1901 the prisoners reaffirmed the Covenant. Beautifully art-lettered in an illuminated address, the text reads in translation as follows: ‘We confess before the Lord our sin in that we have either so sorely neglected or have failed to observe Dingaan’s Day in accordance with the vow taken by our forefathers, and we this day solemnly promise Him that with His help we with our households will henceforth observe this 16th Day of December always as a Sabbath Day in His honour, and that if He spare our lives and give us and our nation the desired deliverance we shall serve Him to the end of our days …’ This oath was taken by the exiles after a month of preparation and a week of humiliation in Hut No. 7.

Education received special attention and schools were established; bearded burghers and commandants shared the school benches with young boys and youths. The subjects studied were mainly bookkeeping, arithmetic, mathematics and languages, and fellow-exiles served as instructors. It was in these schools that the foundation was laid for many a distinguished career in South Africa, such as those of a later Administrator of the Orange Free State (Comdt. C. T. M. Wilcocks), a number of clergymen, physicians and others who, after returning to their fatherland, attained great prestige and became leading figures in the Church and social and political fields. Literary works were also produced in this atmosphere of religion and culture, such as the well known poem ‘The Searchlight’, by Joubert Reitz:

When the searchlight from the gunboat
Throws its rays upon my tent
Then I think of home and comrades
And the happy days I spent
In the country where I come from
And where all I love are yet.
Then I think of things and places
And of scenes I’ll ne’er forget,
Then a face comes up before me
Which will haunt me to the last
And I think of things that have been And of happy days that’s past;
And only then I realise
How much my freedom meant
When the searchlight from the gunboat Casts its rays upon my tent.

Sports gatherings were frequently arranged and provided days of great enjoyment, when young and old competed on the sports field, while cricket, football, tennis, gymnastics and boxing matches filled many an afternoon or evening. Neatly printed programmes for the gatherings and the more important competitions were usually issued.

Various daring attempts at escape were made, but few were successful. Five exiles – Lourens Steytler, George Steytler, Willie Steyn, Piet Botha and a German named Hausner – who succeeded in swimming out to a Russian ship in the port of Colombo (Ceylon), travelled by a devious route through Russia, Germany, the Netherlands and again Germany, and finally landed at Walvis Bay. One captive on St. Helena attempted to escape by hiding in a large case marked ‘Curios’ and addressed to a fictitious dealer in London. But he was discovered shortly after the ship left port and was returned to St. Helena from Ascension Island. Of those in the Bermudas two succeeded in reaching Europe aboard ships visiting Bermudan ports, while J. L. de Villiers escaped from Trichinopoly disguised as a coolie and made his way to the French possession of Pondicherry, from which he finally reached South Africa again by a roundabout route through Aden, France and the Netherlands. Among the exiles held in Ceylon two brothers named Van Zyl and a German did not return to South Africa, but went to Java, where they developed a flourishing farm enterprise with Friesland cattle. Among those held in the Bermudas a number went to the United States of America, where in some of the states such well-known Boer names as Viljoen and Vercueil are still found.

Repatriation of Boer Prisoners of War

As early as 1901 Lord Milner realised what a stupendous task the resettlement of close on 200,000 Whites involved, among whom were about 50,000 impecunious foreigners, as well as 1000.000 Bantu who, as a result of the Anglo-Boer War, had become torn from their usual way of life and had either been herded together in prisoner-of-war and concentration camps or scattered all over the Orange Free State and the Transvaal as refugees and combatants. These people had to be restored to their shattered homes and their work in order to become self-supporting. Milner wished Britons employed by the Transvaal mines and industries to be repatriated first. This began after the annexation of the Transvaal in 1900. By Feb. 1901 as many as 12,000 had already been repatriated, and by the beginning of 1902 nearly all of them had returned to the Witwatersrand.

To aid the resettlement of former Republican subjects, special Land Boards were set up early in 1902 in both the new colonies. They were also expected to help settle immigrant British farmers. From April 1902 the repatriation sections of the Land Boards were converted into independent departments in order to prepare for the repatriation of the Afrikaner population. The post-war development of the repatriation programme was adumbrated in sections I, II and X of the peace treaty of Vereeniging. In terms of sections I and II all burghers (both ‘Bitter-enders’ and prisoners of war) were required to acknowledge beforehand the British king as their lawful sovereign. Section X read that in each district local repatriation boards would be set up to assist in providing relief and in effecting resettlement. For that the British government would provide £3m as a ‘bounty’ and loans, free of interest for two years, and after that redeemable over three years at 3 %. The wording ‘vrije gift’, as the bounty was termed, gave rise to serious misunderstanding, and the accompanying provision, that proof of war losses could be submitted to the central judicial commission, created the erroneous impression that this bounty was intended to compensate the burghers for these losses. The eventual British interpretation, that the bounty was intended as a contribution toward repatriation, created a great deal of bitterness. Eventually it turned out that there was no question of a bounty, since repatriates were held personally responsible for all costs, the £3m being part of the loan of £35m provided by the British treasury for the new colonies.

After the conclusion of peace two central repatriation boards, one in Pretoria and the other in Bloemfontein, began to function, and 38 local boards were set up in the Transvaal and 23 in the Orange River Colony. The repatriation departments were reformed into huge organisations, each employing more than 1,000 men. The real work of repatriation came under three heads, viz. getting farmers back to their farms with the least delay; supplying them with adequate rations until they could harvest their crops; and providing them with seed, stock and implements to cultivate their lands.

The general discharge of prisoners of war in South Africa began in June 1902. Many overseas prisoners of war, especially those in India, were sceptical about the peace conditions and refused to take the oath of allegiance to the British Crown. In spite of the efforts of Gen. De la Rey and Comdt. I. W. Ferreira to induce them to return, about 500 of the 900 ‘irreconcilables’ were not to be persuaded until Jan 1904.

In July 1904 the last 4 Transvaalers were discharged from India, but in May 1907 two Free Staters were still there. There were 100 men per district to every shipload, and on their arrival they were first sent to camps at Umbilo and Simonstown, where they were given food and clothing. Those who were self-supporting were allowed to go home. Through judicious selection – land-owning families first and ‘bywoners’ (share-croppers) next – repatriation was made bearable. By the middle of June 1902 almost all the ‘bitter-enders’ had laid down their arms and were allowed to return to their homes, provided they could fend for themselves. In other cases they were allowed, like the prisoners of war, to take up temporary accommodation with their families in concentration camps until they were sent home by the repatriation departments with a month’s supply of free rations, bedding, tents and kitchen utensils.

By Sept. 1902 only the impoverished group was left in the camps. In due course relief works, such as the construction of railway lines and irrigation works, were started to employ them. However, a considerable number of pre-war share-croppers became chronic Poor Whites. Spoilt by their idle mode of existence during the war, many Bantu refused to leave the refugee camps, but when their food rations were stopped they soon returned to the firms to alleviate the labour shortage.

The road to repatriation was strewn with stumbling blocks. Nearly 300,000 ruined people had to be brought back to their shattered homes. Supplies had to be conveyed over thousands of miles of impassable roads and neglected railways, already heavily burdened by the demobilisation of the British army and the transport of supplies to the Rand. Weeks of wrangling preceded the purchase from the military authorities, at exorbitant prices, of inferior foodstuffs and useless animals, many of which died. The organisation was ineffective, and the authority and ditties of the central and local repatriation boards were too vaguely defined, leading to unnecessary duplication. Moreover, the burghers mistrusted the repatriation. By the end of 1902 most of the ‘old’ population had, however, been restored. Unfortunately the long drought which dragged on from 1902 until the end of 1903 made it necessary for many of the repatriation depots to be kept going until 1904, in order to keep the starving supplied on credit. From 1904 conditions gradually began to return to normal, and in 1905 repatriation was complete. A great deal of the £ 14m spent on it had gone into administrative expenses.

Sharp criticism was levelled against the repatriation policy, especially against the incompetence and lack of sympathy among the officials, and financial mismanagement. The composition of the repatriation boards was also suspect. On the other hand, agricultural credit came in with repatriation and prepared the way for the present system of Land Bank loans and co-operative credit. Milner himself considered the repatriation a success, although he conceded that a considerable sum of money had been squandered. Yet it was not the utter failure it has often been represented to have been. Milner deserves praise for his genuine attempt to resettle an impoverished and uprooted agricultural population and to reconstruct an entire economy. The accomplishment of the entire project without serious friction can largely be attributed to the self-restraint and love of order of the erstwhile Republican burghers.

The preliminary arrangements for releasing some of the Company’s servants from their engagements and helping them to become farmers were at length completed, and on the 21st of February 1657 ground was allotted to the first burghers in South Africa. Before that date individuals had been permitted to make gardens for their own private benefit, but these persons still remained in the Company’s service. They were mostly petty officers with families, who drew money instead of rations, and who could derive a portion of their food from their gardens, as well as make a trifle occasionally by the sale of vegetables. The free burghers, as they were afterwards termed, formed a very different class, as they were subjects, not servants of the Company. For more than a year the workmen as well as the officers had been meditating upon the project, and revolving in their minds whether they would be better off as free men or as servants. At length nine of them determined to make the trial. They formed themselves into two parties, and after selecting ground for occupation, presented themselves before the Council and concluded the final arrangements. There were present that day at the Council table in the Commander’s hall, Mr Van Riebeek, Sergeant Jan van Harwarden, and the Bookkeeper Roelof de Man. The proceedings were taken down at great length by the Secretary Caspar van Weede.

The first party consisted of five men, named Herman Remajenne, Jan de Wacht, Jan van Passel, Warnar Cornelissen, and Roelof Janssen. They had selected a tract of land just beyond Liesbeek, and had given to it the name of Groeneveld, or the Green Country. There they intended to apply themselves chiefly to the cultivation of wheat. And as Remajenne was the principal person among them, they called themselves Herman’s Colony. The second party was composed of four men, named Stephen Botma, Hendrik Elbrechts, Otto Janssen, and Jacob Cornelissen. The ground of their selection was on this side of the Liesbeek, and they had given it the name of Hollandsche Thuin, or the Dutch Garden. They stated that it was their intention to cultivate tobacco as well as grain. Henceforth this party was known as Stephen’s Colony. Both companies were desirous of growing vegetables and of breeding cattle, pigs, and poultry.

The conditions under which these men were released from the Company’s service were as follows :
They were to have in full possession all the ground which they could bring under cultivation within three years, during which time they were to be free of taxes. After the expiration of three years they were to pay a reasonable land tax. They were then to be at liberty to sell, lease, or otherwise alienate their ground, but not without first communicating with the Commander or his representative. Such provisions as they should require out of the magazine were to be supplied to them at the same price as to the Company’s married servants. They were to be at liberty to catch as much fish in the rivers as they should require for their own consumption.

They were to be at liberty to sell freely to the crews of ships any vegetables which the Company might not require for the garrison, but they were not to go on board ships until three days after arrival, and were not to bring any strong drink on shore. Called Stephen Janssen, that is Stephen the son of John, in the records of the time. More than twenty years later he first appears as Stephen Botma. From him sprang the present large South African family of that name.

They were not to keep taps, but were to devote themselves to the cultivation of the ground and the rearing of cattle. They were not to purchase horned cattle, sheep, or anything else from the natives, under penalty of forfeiture of all their possessions.

They were to purchase such cattle as they needed from the Company, at the rate of twenty-five gulden for an ox or cow and three gulden for a sheep.
They were to sell cattle only to the Company, but all they offered were to be taken at the above prices.
They were to pay to the Company for pasturage one tenth of all the cattle reared, but under this clause no pigs or poultry were to be claimed.

The Company was to furnish them upon credit, at cost price in the Fatherland, with all such implements as were necessary to carry on their work, with food, and with guns, powder, and lead for their defence. In payment they were to deliver the produce of their ground, and the Company was to hold a mortgage upon all their possessions.

They were to be subject to such laws as were in force in the Fatherland and in India, and to such as should thereafter be made for the service of the Company and the welfare of the community. These regulations could be altered or amended at will by the Supreme Authorities. The two parties immediately took possession of their ground and commenced to build themselves houses.
They had very little more than two months to spare before the rainy season would set in, but that was sufficient time to run up sod walls and cover them with roofs of thatch. The forests from which timber was obtained were at no great distance; and all the other materials needed were close at hand. And so they were under shelter and ready to turn over the ground when the first rains of the season fell. There was a scarcity of farming implements at first, but that was soon remedied.

On the 17th of March a ship arrived from home, having on board an officer of high rank, named Ryklof van Goens, who was afterwards Governor General of Netherlands India, He had been instructed to rectify anything that he might find amiss here, and he thought the conditions under which the burghers held their ground could be improved. He therefore made several alterations in them, and also inserted some fresh clauses, the most important of which are as follows:

1. The freemen were to have plots of land along the Liesbeek, in size forty roods by two hundred – equal to 133 morgen – free of fixes for twelve years.

2. All farming utensils were to be repaired free of charge for three years. In order to procure a good stock of breeding cattle, the free-men were to be at liberty to purchase from the natives, until further instructions should be received, but they were not to pay more than the Company.

3. The price of horned cattle between the freemen and the Company was reduced from twenty-five to twelve gulden.
The penalty to be paid by a burgher for selling cattle except to the Company was fixed at twenty rix-dollars.

4. That they might direct their attention chiefly to the cultivation of grain, the freemen were not to plant tobacco or even more vegetables than were needed for their own consumption.

5. The burghers were to keep guard by turns in any redoubts which should be built for their protection.

6. They were not to shoot any wild animals except such as were noxious. To promote the destruction of ravenous animals the premiums were increased, viz, for a lion, to twenty-five gulden, for a hyena, to twenty gulden, and for a leopard, to ten gulden.

7. None but married men of good character and of Dutch or German birth were to have ground allotted to them. Upon their request, their wives and children were to be sent to them from Europe. In every case they were to agree to remain twenty years in South Africa.

8. Unmarried men could be released from service to work as mechanics, or if they were specially adapted for any useful employment, or if they would engage themselves for a term of years to the holders of ground.

9. One of the most respectable burghers was to have a seat and a vote in the Council of Justice whenever cases affecting freemen or their interests were being tried. He was to hold the office of Burgher Councillor for a year, when another should be selected and have the honour transferred to him.

Map of Liesbeek River

To this office Stephen Botma was appointed for the first term. The Commissioner drew up lengthy instructions for the guidance of the Cape government, in which the Commander was directed to encourage and assist the burghers, as they would relieve the Company of the payment of a large amount of wages. There were then exactly one hundred persons in South Africa in receipt of wages, and as soon as the farmers were sufficiently numerous, this number was to be reduced to seventy.

Many of the restrictions under which the Company’s servants became South African burghers were vexatious, and would be deemed intolerable at the present day. But in 1657 men heard very little of individual rights or of unrestricted trade. They were accustomed to the interference of the government in almost every thing, and as to free trade, it was simply impossible. The Netherlands could only carry on commerce with the East by means of a powerful Company, able to conduct expensive wars and maintain great fleets without drawing upon the resources of the State. Individual interests were therefore lost sight of even at home, much more so in such a settlement as that at the Cape, which was called into existence by the Company solely and entirely for its own benefit.

A commencement having been made, there were a good many applications for free papers. Most of those to whom they were granted afterwards re-entered the Company’s service, or went back to the Fatherland. The names of some who remained in South Africa have died out, but others have numerous descendants in this country at the present day. There are even instances in which the same Christian name has been transmitted from father to son in unbroken succession. In addition to those already mentioned, the following individuals received free papers within the next twelvemonth : Wouter Mostert, who was for many years one of the leading men in the settlement. He had been a miller in the Fatherland, and followed the same occupation here after becoming a free burgher. The Company had imported a corn mill to be worked by horses, but after a short time it was decided to make use of the water of the fresh river as a motive power. Mostert contracted to build the new mill, and when it was in working order he took charge of it on. shares of the payments made for grinding. Hendrik Boom, the gardener, whose name has already been frequently mentioned.

Caspar Brinkman, Pieter Visagie, Hans Faesbenger, Jacob Cloete, Jan Reyniers, Jacob Theunissen, Jan Rietvelt, Otto van Vrede, and Simon Janssen, who had land assigned to them as farmers. Herman Ernst, Cornelis Claassen, Thomas Robertson (an Englishman), Isaac Manget, Klaas Frederiksen, Klaas Schriever, and Hendrik Fransen, who took service with farmers.

Christian Janssen and Peter Cornelissen, who received free papers because they had been expert hunters in the Company’s service. It was arranged that they should continue to follow that employment, in which they were granted a monopoly, and prices were fixed at which they were to sell all kinds of game they were also privileged to keep a tap for the sale of strong drink.

Leendert Cornelissen, a ship’s carpenter, who received a grant of a strip of forest at the foot of the mountain. His object was to cut timber for sale, for all kinds of which pries were fixed by the Council.

Elbert Dirksen and Hendrik van Surwerden, who were to get living as tailor.

Jan Vetteman, the surgeon of the fort. He arranged for a monopoly of practice in his profession and for various other privileges.

Roelof Zieuwerts, who was to get his living as a waggon and plough maker, and to whom a small piece of forest was granted.

Martin Vlockaart, Pieter Jacobs, and Jan Adriansen, who were to maintain themselves as fishermen.

Pieter Kley, Dirk Vreem, and Pieter Heynse, who were to saw yellow wood planks for sale, as well as to work at their occupation as carpenters’.

Hendrik Schaik, Willem Petersen, Dirk Rinkes, Michiel van Swel, Dirk Noteboom, Frans Gerritsen, and Jan Zacharias, who are mentioned merely as having become free burghers. Besides the regulations concerning the burghers, the Commissioner Van Goons drew up copious instructions on general subjects for the guidance of the government. He prohibited the ompany’s servants from cultivating larger gardens than required or their own use, but he excepted the Commander, to whom he granted the whole of the ground at Green Point as a private farm. As a rule, the crews of foreign ships were not to be provided with vegetables or meat, but were to be permitted to take in water freely. The Commander was left some discretion in dealing with hem, but the tenor of the instructions was that they were not to be, encouraged to visit Table Bay.

Jan van Riebeeck fake painting

Regarding the natives, they were to be treated kindly, so as to obtain their goodwill. If any of them assaulted or robbed a burgher, those suspected should be seized and placed upon Robben Island until they made known the offenders, when they should be released and the guilty persons be banished to the island for two or three years. If any of them committed murder, the criminal should be put to death, but the Commander should endeavour have the execution performed by the natives themselves. Caution was to be observed that no foreign language should continue to be spoken by any slaves who might hereafter be brought into the country. Equal care was to be taken that no other weights or measures than those in use in the Fatherland should be introduced. The measure of length was laid down as twelve Rhynland inches to the foot, twelve-feet to the rood, and two thousand roods to the mile, so that fifteen miles would be equal to a degree of latitude. In measuring land, six hundred square roods were to make a morgen. The land measure thus introduced is used in the Cape Colony to the present day. In calculating with it, it must be remembered that one thousand Rhynland feet are equal to one thousand and thirty-three British Imperial feet. The office of Secunde, now for a long time vacant, was filled by the promotion of the bookkeeper Roelof de Man. Caspar van Weede was sent to Batavia, and the clerk Abraham Gabbema was appointed Secretary of the Council in his stead. In April 1657, when these instructions were issued, the European population consisted of one hundred and thirty-four individuals, Company’s servants and burghers, men, women, and children all told. There were at the Cape three male and eight female slaves.

Commissioner Van Goens permitted the burghers to purchase cattle from the natives, provided they gave in exchange no more than the Company was offering. A few weeks after he left South Africa, three of the farmers turned this license to account, by equipping themselves and going upon a trading journey inland. Travelling in an easterly direction, they soon reached a district in which five or six hundred Hottentots were found, by whom they were received in a friendly manner. The Europeans could not sleep in the huts on account of vermin and filth, neither could they pass the night without some shelter, as lions and other wild animals were numerous in that part of the country. The Hottentots came to their assistance by collecting a great quantity of thorn bushes, with which they formed a high circular hedge, inside of which the strangers slept in safety. Being already well supplied with copper, the residents were not disposed to part with cattle, and the burghers were obliged to return with only two oxen and three sheep. They understood the natives to say that the district in which they were living was the choicest portion of the whole country, for which reason they gave it the name of Hottentots Holland.

For many months none of the pastoral Hottentots had been at the fort, when one day in July Harry presented himself before the Commander. He had come, he said, to ask where they could let their cattle graze, as they observed that the Europeans were cultivating the ground along the Liesbeek. Mr Van Riebeek replied that they had better remain where they were, which was at distance of eight or ten hours’ journey on foot from the fort. Harry informed him that it was not their custom to remain long in one place, and that if they were deprived of a retreat here they would soon be ruined by their enemies. The Commander then rated that they might come and live behind the mountains, along by Hout Bay, or on the slope of the Lion’s Head, if they would trade with him. But to this Harry would not consent, as he said they lived upon the produce of their cattle. The native difficulty had already become what it has been ever since, the most important question for solution in South Africa. Mr Van Riebeek was continually devising some scheme for its settlement, and a large portion of his dispatches has reference to the subject. At this time his favourite plan was to build a chain of redoubts across the isthmus and to connect them with a wall.

Cape Settlement

A large party of the Kaapmans was then to be enticed within the line, with their families and cattle, and when once on this side none but men were ever to be allowed to go beyond it again. They were to be compelled to sell their cattle, but were to be provided with goods so that the men could purchase more, and they were to be allowed a fair profit on trading transactions. The women and children were to be kept as guarantees for the return of the men. In this manner, the Commander thought, a good supply of cattle could be secured, and all difficulties with the natives be removed.

During the five years of their residence at the Cape, the Europeans had acquired some knowledge of the condition of the natives. They had ascertained that all the little clans in the neighbourhood, whether Goringhaikonas, Gorachouquas, or Goringhaiquas, were members of one tribe, of which Gogosoa was the principal chief. The clans were often at war, as the Goringhaikonas and the Goringhaiquas in 1652, but they showed a common front against the next tribe or great division of people whose chiefs owned relationship to each other. The wars between the clans usually seemed to be mere forays with a view of getting possession ‘of women and cattle, while between the tribes hostilities were often waged with great bitterness. Of the inland tribes, Mr Van Riebeek knew nothing more than a few names. Clans calling themselves the Chariguriqua, the Cochoqua, and the Chainouqua had been to the fort, and from the last of these one hundred and thirty head of cattle had recently been purchased, but as yet their position with regard to others was not made out. The predatory habits of the Bushmen were well known, as also that they were enemies of every one else, but it was supposed that they were merely another Hottentot clan. Some stories which Eva told greatly interested the Commander.

After the return of the beach rangers to Table Valley, she had gone back to live in Mr Van Riebeek’s house, and was now at the age of fifteen or sixteen years able to speak Dutch fluently.

The ordinary interpreter, Doman with the honest face, was so attached to the Europeans that he had gone to Batavia with Commissioner Van Goens, and Eva was now employed in his stead. She told the Commander that the Namaquas were a people living in the interior, who had white skins and long hair, that they wore clothing and made their black slaves cultivate the ground, and that they built stone houses and had religious services just the same as the Netherlanders. There were others, she said, who had gold and precious stones in abundance, and a Hottentot who brought some cattle for sale corroborated her statement and asserted that he was familiar with everything of the kind that was exhibited to him except a diamond. He stated that one of his wives had been brought up in the house of a great lord named Chobona, and that she was in possession of abundance of gold ornaments and jewels. Mr Van Riebeek invited him pressingly to return at once and bring her to the fort, but he replied that being accustomed to sit at home and be waited upon by numerous servants, she would be unable to travel so far. An offer to send a wagon for her was rejected on the ground that the sight of Europeans would frighten her to death.

All that could be obtained from this ingenious storyteller was a promise to bring his wife to the fort on some future occasion. After this the Commander was more than ever anxious to have the interior of the country explored, to open up a road to the capital city of Monomotapa and the river Spirite Sancto, where gold was certainly to be found, to make the acquaintance of Chobona and the Namaquas, and to induce the people of Benguela to bring the products of their country to the fort Good Hope for sale. The Commissioner Van Goons saw very little difficulty in the way of accomplishing these designs, and instructed Mr Van Riebeek to use all reasonable exertion to carry them out. The immediate object of the next party which left the fort to penetrate the interior was, however, to procure cattle rather than find Ophir or Monomotapa.

A large fleet was expected, and the Commander was anxious to have a good herd of oxen in readiness to refresh the crews. The party, which left on the 19th of October, consisted of seven servants of the Company, eight freemen, and four Hottentots. They took pack oxen to carry provisions and the usual articles of merchandise. Abraham Gabbema, Fiscal and Secretary of the Council, was the leader. They shaped their course at first towards a mountain which was visible from the Cape, and which, on account of its having a buttress surmounted by a dome resembling a flat nightcap such as was then in common use, had already received the name of Klapmuts. Passing round this mountain and over the low watershed beyond, they proceeded onward until they came to a stream running in a northerly direction along the base of a seemingly impassable chain of mountains, for this reason they gave it the name of the Great Berg River. its waters they found barbels, and by some means they managed to catch as many as they needed to refresh themselves. They were now in one of the fairest of all South African To the west lay a long isolated mountain, its face covered with verdure and here and there furrowed by little streamlets which ran down to the river below. Its top was crowned with domes of bare grey granite, and as the rising sun poured a flood of light upon them, they sparkled like gigantic gems, so that the travellers named them the Paarl and the Diamant. In the evening when the valley lay in deepening shadow, the range on the east was lit up with tints more charming than pen or pencil can describe, for nowhere is the glow of light upon rock more varied or more beautiful. Between the mountains the surface of the ground was dotted over with trees,” and in the month of October it was carpetted with grass and flowers.

Wild animals shared with man the possession of this lovely domain. In the river great numbers of hippopotami were seen ; on the mountain sides herds of zebras were browsing ; and trampling down the grass, which in places was so tall that Gabbema described it as fit to make hay of, were many rhinoceroses.

There is great confusion of names in the early records whenever native clans are spoken of. Sometimes it is stated that Gogosoa’s people called themselves the Goringhaiqua or Goriughaina, at other times the same clan is called the Goringhaikona. Harry’s people were sometimes termed the Watermans, sometimes the Strandloopers (beach rangers). The Bushmen were at first called Visman by Mr Van Riebeek, but he soon adopted the word Sonqua, which he spelt in various ways. This is evidently a form of the Hottentot name for these people, as may be seen from the following words, which are used by a Hottentot clan at the present day :-Nominative singular, sap, a bushman; dual, sakara, two bushmen; plural, sakoa, more than two bushmen. Nominative singular, sas, a bushwoman ; dual, sasara, two bushwomen ; plural, sadi, more than two bushwomen. Common plural, sang, bushmen and bushwomen. When the tribes became better known the titles given in the text were used.

There were little kraals of Hottentots all along the Berg River, but the people were not disposed to barter away their cattle. Gabbema and his party moved about among them for more than a week, but only succeeded in obtaining ten oxen and forty-one sheep, with which they returned to the fort. And so, gradually, geographical knowledge was being gained, and Monomotapa and the veritable Ophir where Solomon got his gold were moved further backward on the charts. During the year 1657 several public works of importance were undertaken.

A platform was erected upon the highest point of Robben Island, upon which a fire was kept up at night whenever ships belonging to the Company were seen off the port. At the Company’s farm at Rondebosch the erection of a magazine for grain was commenced, in size one hundred and eight by forty feet. This building, afterwards known as the Groote Schuur, was of very substantial construction. In Table Valley the lower course of the fresh river was altered. In its ancient channel it was apt to damage the gardens in winter by overflowing its banks. A new and broader channel was therefore cut, so that it should enter the sea some distance to the south-east of the fort. The old channel was turned into a canal, and sluices were made in order that the moat might still be filled at pleasure.

In February 1658 it was resolved to send another trading party inland, as the stock of cattle was insufficient to meet the wants of the fleets shortly expected. Of late there had been an unusual demand for meat. The Arnhem, and Slot van Honingen, two large East Indiamen, had put into Table Bay in the utmost distress, and in a short time their crews had consumed forty head of horned cattle and fifty sheep. This expedition was larger and better equipped than any yet seat from the fort Good Hope. The leader was Sergeant Jan van Harwarden, and under him were fifteen Europeans and two Hottentots, with six pack oxen to carry provisions and the usual articles of barter. The Land Surveyor Pieter Potter accompanied party for the purpose of observing the features of the country, so that a correct map could be made.

To him was also entrusted the task of keeping the journal of the expedition. The Sergeant instructed to learn all that he could concerning the tribes, to ascertain if ivory, ostrich feathers, musk, civet, gold, and precious stones, were obtainable, and, if so, to look out for a suitable place the establishment of a trading station. The party passed the Paarl mountain on their right, and crossing the Berg River beyond, proceeded in a northerly direction until they reached the great wall which bounds the coast belt of South Africa. In searching along it for a passage to the interior, they discovered a stream which came foaming down through an enormous cleft in the mountain, but they could not make their way along it, as the sides of the ravine appeared to rise in almost perpendicular precipices. It was the Little Berg River, and through the winding gorge the railway to the interior passes today, but when in 1658 Europeans first looked into its deep recesses it seemed to defy an entrance.

The travellers kept. on their course along the great barrier, but no pathway opened to the regions beyond. Then dysentery attacked some of them, probably brought on by fatigue, and they were compelled to retrace their steps. Near the Little Berg River they halted and formed a temporary camp, while the Surveyor Potter with three Netherlanders and the two Hottentots attempted to cross the range. It may have been at the very spot known a hundred years later as the Roodezand Pass, and at any rate it was not far from it, that Potter and his little band toiled wearily up the heights, and were rewarded by being the first of Christian blood to look down into the secluded dell now called the Tulbagh Basin.

Standing on the summit of the range, their view extended away for an immense distance along the valley of the Breede River, but it was a desolate scene that met their gaze. Under the glowing sun the ground lay bare of verdure, and in all that wide expanse which today is dotted thickly with cornfields and groves and homesteads, there was then no sign of human It was only necessary to run the eye over it to be assured that the expedition was a failure in that direction. And so they returned to their companions and resumed the homeward march.

Source: Chronicles of the Cape Commanders by George McCall Theal – 1882

Aided Immigration from Britain to South Africa

History of South Africa 1795 – 1735
By G, McAll Theal
Chapter XXX
Jacob Abraham De Mist, Commissioner-General, 21 February 1803 to 25 September 1804.Lieutenant-General Jan Willem Janssens, Governor, installed 1 March 1803, capitulated to an English army 18 January 1806.

Image: Lieutenant-General Jan Willem Janssens

In the evening the principal houses in Cape Town were illuminated, and a series of festivities followed.

The amnesty did not include the Graaff-Reinet farmers who had been nearly four years in prison, as they had been sentenced by a court of law. But they were not left long in doubt concerning their fate. Adriaan van Jaarsveld had died in confinement. The others were set free on the 30th of March.
The landdrost, secretaries, and in general all the clerks who had held office during the English administration retained their appointments. So did the collector of tithes and the wine tax, Christoffel Brand, and the receiver-general of revenue, Arend de Waal, who had succeeded Mr. Rhenius in April 1797. Mr. J. P. Baumgardt had left the country on its transfer to its old masters, and in his stead as collector of land revenue Mr. Be Mist appointed Sebastiaan Valentyn van Reenen, who had suffered heavy losses under the late administration by being detained for a long time in arrest on suspicion of having communicated with the Dutch fleet under Admiral Lucas.
The burgher senate was enlarged to seven members, but in the following year was reduced to five. Those now chosen were Cornelis van der Poel, Gerrit Hendrik Meyer, Anthony Berrange, Pieter van Breda, Jan Andries Horak, Jacobus Johannes Vos, and Jan Adriaan Vermaak. Cajus Jesse Slotsboo was appointed secretary. After the reduction in number took place, the senate consisted of a president and four members. At the end of every year one retired, when a list of four names was furnished to the governor, from which to select a successor. At the same time the governor appointed one of them to act as president during the ensuing twelvemonth.

On the 3rd of April Governor Janssens left Cape Town to visit the eastern part of the colony, and ascertain how matters were standing with the white people, the Kosas, and the Hottentots. At Port Frederick he found Dr. Van der Kemp and the Hottentots under his care, who had abandoned Bother’s farm some time before. Upon close inquiry he learned that many of these people who had once been in service with farmers had good reason of complaint on the ground of ill-treatment. He fully approved of the plan contemplated by General Dundas, of assigning a tract of land for their use, where they could be under the guidance of missionaries; and he offered for this purpose any vacant ground that was available. A commission, consisting of the commandants Botha and Van Rooyen, Mr. Dirk van Reenen, and Mr. Gerrit Oosthuizen, was thereupon appointed by the governor to act in conjunction with the reverend James Read, Dr. Van der Kemp’s nominee, in selecting a suitable place. They chose a tract of land about six thousand seven hundred morgen in extent, lying along the Little Zwartkops river, between the loan farms of Thomas Ferreira and the widow Scheepers. On the 3lst of May the governor gave his formal consent in writing to the occupation of this place by the Hottentots under supervision of missionaries of the London society, and at Dr. Van der kemp’s request named it Bethelsdorp. The permission thus given was confirmed by Mr. De Mist a few months afterwards.

One hundred and fifty men of the Waldeck regiment, under command of Major Von Gilten, had in the meantime arrived by sea, and had occupied Fort Frederick. Order could therefore be enforced in the immediate neighbourhood. The governor found it advisable to remove two farmers, who were much disliked by the Hottentots on account of their harsh conduct. Thomas Ignatius Ferreira he ordered to reside in the neighbourhood of the drostdy of Swellendam, and Jan Arend Hens he sent to Stellenbosch.

Two parties of Hottentots who had not chosen to place themselves under the guidance of missionaries were living near the Sunday River. The governor sent friendly messages to their captains, Klaas Stuurman and Boesak, the first of whom accepted an invitation to visit Fort Frederick and make his wants known. Stuurman stated that his followers were thoroughly impoverished, and most of them would be very glad to take service with the colonists, if they could be assured of peace and good treatment. He asked for a tract of land on the left bank of the Gamtoos river, where he and his people could have their homes, while those who were so disposed could engage themselves to the farmers. The governor did not immediately give a decision upon this request, as he wished Stuurman’s clan to move farther westward; but he came to a friendly understanding with the captain. The past was to be forgotten on both sides, or, if it was remembered, the misdeeds of the Hottentots during the war were to be regarded as a set-off against the ill-treatment which some of them complained of having received from colonists. The Hottentots were assured of complete protection of person and property, and it was arranged that when any of them went into service a record of the terms should be kept by the landdrost, who should see that strict justice was done.

By the governor’s directions, on the 9th of May an ordinance was published by the council, requiring contracts between farmers and Hottentots to be made in triplicate, upon certain prescribed forms, before an official of position as no notice would be taken by the courts of law of complaints against servants engaged in any other manner.
On the 19th of June the governor instructed Captain Alberti, the second in command of the garrison of Fort Frederick, to select a suitable tract of land on the Gamtoos River, and give it to Stuurman for the use of his people. A great many of these in the meantime had gone into service. The captain was then away hunting buffaloes, and the next that was heard of him was that his gun had burst and shattered one of his arms, from the effects of which he died in November. His brother David Stuurman then became captain of the clan, and in February 1804 a location was assigned to him on the Gamtoos river.

Boesak and his followers wandered about for a time, but did not molest any one, and ultimately they also settled down peaceably.

When the colony was transferred the Hottentot regiment in the British service was transferred with it to the Batavian authorities The regiment was then quartered at Rietvlei, a farm on the Cape flats that from early times had been kept for the use of the government. There were two hundred and fifty-nine privates, thirty corporals, and seventeen drummers, drawing rations and trifling pay, and requiring to be clothed and housed. At the same place, Rietvlei, were the seven captains that Maynier had induced to remove from, the Zuurveld, and who had with them one hundred and twenty three men, two hundred and eighteen Women, and two hundred and fifty-two children All these were being fed at the expense of government and their presence had a very bad effect upon the pandours. To those among them who would not enter service the governor allotted locations of ample size at some distance from the frontier, and he furnished them with a few cattle to commence stock breeding.

By these arrangements the disturbances with the Hottentots were brought to an end.
Upon the arrival of General Janssens at Fort Frederick he sent messengers to the Kosa chiefs in the Zuurveld, inviting them to come and talk over matters with him. Ndlambe and Jalusa thereupon sent some of their councillors to declare that they wished to live in peace and friendship with the white people. Cungwa and one of the sons of Langa returned for reply that they would meet the governor on the Sunday River in five days’ time, if he would be there, and that they were anxious to be on good terms with the colonists.

The governor then made arrangements for a conference with the chiefs at the place of their own selection. He was accompanied from Fort Frederick by sixty-five soldiers and thirty other attendants, and on the way was joined by Commandant Van Rensburg with one hundred and eight burghers, who came to pay their respects and express their gratification that the country had been restored to its ancient owners.
The conference took place on the 24th of May, on the eastern bank of the Sunday River. The chiefs would not venture into the camp, which was on the opposite side of the stream, and General Janssens was obliged to leave his retinue and go across with a few officers and the burgher commandant. Ndlambe, Cungwa, Jalusa, Tshatshu, and some others of less note, with numerous attendants, were present. Klaas Stuurman and some of his people were also there.
During three days a discussion was carried on concerning a friendly arrangement between the two races. The chiefs expressed an earnest wish for peace and friendship with the white people, and there was no difficulty in settling such matters as the delivery of deserters and fugitive slaves, the mode of punishing offenders on either side, and the like. But the all-important question of the removal of the Kosas from the Zuurveld could not be arranged so easily. The chiefs admitted the Fish River as the boundary, but declared that they could not cross it through fear of Gaika. They were about to attack him, they said, and if they were victorious they would at once return to their own country otherwise they must wait for a convenient opportunity. The governor tried to persuade them to make peace with Gaika, and after much talking all except Ndlambe expressed their willingness to do so, provided the overtures came from him. Ndlambe could not be induced to say that he would come to terms with his nephew.

As nothing more could be done, presents were made to the chiefs, who sent a couple of oxen in return; and with assurances of friendship on both sides the parties separated. The governor now issued a proclamation Prohibiting the Colonists from engaging Kaffirs as labourers and ordering that all of that race who were in service should be immediately discharged unless they had been over a year with their employers and expressed a wish to remain.
The governor next proceeded to visit Gaika, from whom he had received a message requesting assistance against the Kaffirs in the Zuurveld. At the Fish River the persons whom he sent in advance to announce his intention brought him back intelligence that they had been received in a very friendly manner, and Coenraad du Buis came as the chief’s confidant to welcome him and request him to go on to the Kat river.

On the 24th of June the governor had a conference with Gaika, at which a formal agreement of friendship was entered into. The Fish River was declared to be the boundary between the two races, and the chief promised that none of his followers except official messengers should cross it. He gave an assurance that if the Kaffirs in the Zuurveld would return to their own country he would not molest them, but he declined positively to make overtures of peace to Ndlambe. He consented to expel the European renegades who were living with his people, but desired to make an exception in favour of Coenraad du Buis. That individual, however promised the governor that he would return to the colony, and a few months later he kept his word. As for the others, several were delivered to the Colonial authorities and were placed where they could be watched eight or ten fled to distant tribes, and one – Jan Botha – was murdered by Ndlambe’s people.
From the Kat river, General Janssens proceeded to the northern border of the colony, to ascertain the condition of the white people and the Bushmen. At Plettenberg’s beacon on the Zeekoe River a messenger met him with a despatch announcing that on the 12th of May, less than three months after the restoration of the colony, war had broken out again between Great Britain and France. The Batavian Republic was so closely allied with the latter power a necessarily to share its fortunes. The governor therefore hastened back to Cape Town, without being able to do more than gather what information could be obtained in a very rapid journey.

It was now resolved to reduce the garrison of Fort Frederick to half the strength at first intended. Captain Lodewyk Alberti, who was about to take over the command from Major Von Gilten, was instructed to continue urging the Kosas in the Zuurveld to cross the Fish river without delay. In August that officer made a tour among them for this purpose, but was unsuccessful. In the following month Cungwa came to terms with Gaika, and promised Alberti to leave the colony as soon as his crops were gathered. Ndlambe’s people at this time were making gardens on the western side of the Bushman’s river, though the chief had undertaken not to do so. Parties of them were roaming about lifting cattle wherever they could find an unprotected herd. The war between them and Gaika’s clan was being carried on actively, and Kawuta had been applied to again for assistance, but declined to give it.

Soon after this another combination was formed. Cungwa and Jalusa joined Gaika, and together they attacked Ndlambe in the Zuurveld, but did not succeed in dislodging him. The belt of land along the coast east of the Bushman’s river was thus kept from being reoccupied by the farmers, but the remaining portion of the district of Graaff-Reinet was in a fair condition of tranquillity.
Upon learning of the renewal of hostilities in Europe General Janssens devoted all his attention to putting the Cape peninsula in a condition for defence, and to the increase of his military strength. But soon instructions were received from Holland that he must send his best regime the 23rd battalion of infantry, to Batavia, as the mother Country was unable to furnish more men, and troops were urgently needed in Java. In February 1804 this regiment left South Africa. The governor did what he could to make up for its loss, by increasing the Hottentot corps first to five hundred, and soon afterwards to six hundred men. But to the burghers he looked chiefly for the defence of the colony, if it should be attacked.

The English East India Company had a large amount of property in Capetown under charge of its agent, Mr. John Pringle. On the 29th of September 1803 this was declared confiscated, on account of war, and was seized for the government. There was a great quantity of salt provisions and 11,351 L. in money, which proved very serviceable, as the funds in the treasury were low. Mr. De Mist brought with him from Holland 8,333 L in money and 33,333 L in bills of Exchange, but that was nearly all expended, and, except for the maintenance of the troops, nothing could be expected from Europe after the renewal of the war. The yearly average of the colonial revenue from January 1803 to January 1806 was only three hundred and sixty-nine thousand six hundred and thirty eight rix-dollars equal at the estimated rate of exchange to 61,606 L.

On the 9th of October the commissioner-general left Cape Town for the purpose of making a tour through the Colony and becoming acquainted with the condition and wants of the people. He took with him a number of attendants and a military escort, so that the train had quite imposing appearance. Proceeding first in a northerly direction, he visited Saldanha and St. Helena bays; then turning inland, he passed through Pikenier’s Kloof, and kept onward to the Hantam, From the Hantam he made his way over the Roggeveld and the Bokkeveld to the land of Waveren – now the Tulbagh basin, where he remained some days to refresh his cattle. He then kept down the valley of the Breede River, and after passing the site of the present village of Worcester he turned to the south to visit the Moravian mission station in Baviaans’ Kloof.
More people were residing at that station than at any other place in the colony except Cape Town, but it had still no distinctive name, for there were several Baviaans’ Kloofs in the country. It was only on the 1st of January 1806 that General Janssens confirmed the name Genadendal – Vale of Grace – which the missionaries at his request had just previously given to it. At the time of Mr. De Mist’s visit, there were nearly eleven hundred people attached to the mission. They occupied about two hundred wattle-and-daub cottages, small and scantily furnished, but a great advance upon Hottentot huts. Each little cottage stood in a garden, in which vegetables and fruit trees of various kinds were growing. There was an air of order and neatness over the whole place, and marks of industry were apparent on all sides. The most thriving of the residents were naturally the halfbreeds, many of whom had really comfortable homes; but even the pure Hottentots had made advances towards civilisation. Some of the men belonging to the station were away in service with farmers, but at stated intervals they returned to their families with their earnings. There were five missionaries, two – Rose and Korhammer by name – having come from Europe in 1799 to assist the three who founded the station. They were living in plain, but comfortable houses. They and their wives were all engaged during stated hours of the day in teaching industrial occupations, and in the evening the whole community assembled in a large and neat building to join in the worship of God. The missionaries, having power to expel unruly persons from the place, maintained strict discipline among the Hottentots; but it was the kind of discipline that parents enforce upon children, tempered by love and interest in their welfare. Nothing more admirable than this excellent institution could be imagined, and Mr. De Mist and the officers of his train had a difficulty in finding words to express their pleasure and satisfaction with what they saw.

From the Moravian village the commissioner-general went eastward through Swellendam to Fort Frederick at Algoa Bay. Here he was visited by the reverend Dr. Van der kemp, with whom he had been acquainted in Holland thirty five years before. Dr. Van der kemp was dressed in coat, trousers, and sandals; but was without shirt, neck-cloth, socks, or hat. In a burning sun he travelled about bareheaded and thus strangely attired. Yet his conversation was rational, and his memory was perfectly sound.. He had formed an opinion that to convert the Hottentots to Christianity it was necessary to descend in style of living nearly to their level, to be their companion as well as their teacher and being thoroughly in earnest he was putting his views into practice Mr. De Mist and his party visited the London society’s station of Bethelsdorp, where Dr. Van der kemp and the Reverend Mr. Read were residing. They found no indication of industry of any kind, no garden – though it was then the planting season, – nothing but a number of wretched huts on a bare plain, with people lying about in filth and indolence. The Hottentots having settled there so recently, it was not to be expected that the place would present the- appearance of Genadendal, and Mr. De Mist was well aware that the London missionaries were not in as favourable a position as the Moravian brethren. They had to deal with a wild people, who had been less than a quarter of a century in contact with Europeans, and to whom expulsion from the station would be no punishment The Moravians, on the other hand, were working with people who had own up among farmers who could appreciate the advantage of a fixed residence, and who were accustomed to the use of such food as could be derived from gardens and orchards. It was not therefore the absence of improvement that gave Mr De Mist and those who were with him an unfavourable impression of Bethelsdorp but the absence of any effort to induce the Hottentots to adopt industrious habits, and the profession of principles that tended to degrade one race without raising the other. The missionaries themselves were living in the same manner as the Hottentots, and were so much occupied with teaching religious truths that they entirely neglected temporal matters. Dr. Vanderkemp was loud in complaints against the colonists in the neighbourhood, because they gave nothing towards the maintenance of the station, as he held it was their duty to do, and because they often tried to induce some of the people to leave the school and enter into service. More with a view of keeping the Hottentots out of mischief than with any expectation of this institution becoming useful, the commissioner-general made a small grant of money from the colonial treasury towards the funds of the place, and added to the gift some sensible advice.
From Bethelsdorp Mr. Be Mist and his train travelled north-eastward through the Zuurveld. They found parties of Kosas wandering about the country begging and making themselves a nuisance to such colonists as had returned to the devastated farms, but not committing any open hostilities. Messengers were sent to Ndlambe, Cungwa, and Jalusa, to invite them to a conference on the Bushman’s river; but they did not appear, and it was not found possible to meet them. A messenger was also sent to Gaika, who appointed a place for an interview, but on Mr. De Mist’s arrival he was not there. One of his councillors appeared instead, and requested the commissioner-general to proceed still farther, as the chief was anxious to see the great captain of the white people. He stated that Gaika was then preparing to attack Ndlambe, and therefore could not leave his kraal. Mr. De Mist, however, did not choose to put himself to any more trouble, so from the Fish river the party turned homeward.

The route now followed was by the way of Bruintjes Hoogte to the village of Graaff-Reinet. Here a detention of several days was made, for the purpose of arranging the affairs of the eastern part of the colony. When this was completed the party moved on, and after suffering greatly from heat on the Karoo passed again through the land of Wayeren and arrived at the castle on the 23rd of March 1804.

On the 7th of February the commissioner-general issued a proclamation from the village of Graaff Reinet, cutting off from the district of that name the field cornetcies of Zwarte Ruggens, Bruintjes Hoogte, Zuurveld, Bushmans River, and Zwartkops River. These were the field cornetcies in which the most turbulent burghers resided and which had been the principal field of depredations by the Kosas. They were now formed into a new district which was to have as landdrost a military officer in command of a body of troops. Mr. Bresler had been recalled some time before, and in his stead Mr. Andries Stockenstrom secretary of Swellendam was appointed Landdrost of Graaff Reinet On the l4th of February he assumed the duty. On the 22nd of April Captain Alberti, who was in command of the garrison of Fort Frederick, was instructed to act as landdrost of the new district to which three days later General Janssens gave the name Uitenhage, an old family name of the commissioner-general.

Captain Alberti was instructed to consult the leading burghers in the selection of a Site for the drostdy, and the three landdrosts of Swellendam, Graaf Reinet and Uitenhage were directed to confer together and send in a report upon the advisability or otherwise of increasing the size of the new district. On the 4th of October they recommended that the fieldcornetcy of Winterhoek should be taken from Graaff Reinet and the fieldcorentcies of Zitzikami, Kromme River and Baviaans Kloof from Swellendam, and added to Uitenhage. Each district should then have a landdrost and six heemraden. The commissioner-general approved of this, and the necessary orders were given.
The boundary of the new district of Uitenhage was declared to be ‘from Grenadiers’s Cape through the upper end of Kromme River in a straight line through Kougaberg throught to the lower point of Anthoniesberg, thence along the waggon road through Dasjes Poort, Groote River Poort, Groote River, Swanepoel’s Poort, Hop River, Bul River, Sunday River, Vogel River, and Blyde River to Bruintjes Hoogte, thence along the top of Bruintjes Hoogte to the Boshberg, along the Boschberg to the end of Kagaberg, and thence Fish River to the sea.’

Captain Alberti, with Commandant Hendrik van Rensburg and Field-cornet Ignatius Mulder, selected as a suitable site for the drostdy a farm belonging to the widow Elizabeth Scheepers, which had been laid waste by the Kaffirs, and had not since been occupied. The widow offered to sell the farm for 400 L, provided the right of free residence during her life was left to her. On the 22nd of September the council agreed to purchase it on these terms. The drostdy buildings were commenced shortly afterwards, when the site took the same name as the district. The first session of the landdrost and heemraden was held on the 15th of November.

In the same year another district was created. On the 11th of July 1804 the commissioner-general issued a proclamation cutting off from Stellenbosch a tract of country north of a provisional line, which was laid down as extending from Verloren Vlei north of St. Helena Bay along Kruis River, thence east through Pikenier’s Kloof and Eland’s Kloof, along the northern base of the mountains of Cold Bokkeveld, and thence south-east by the Draai at Verkeerde Vlei to the border of Swellendam. On the 15th of July General Janssens gave to the district between this provisional line, the northern boundary of the colony, and the Gamka River or western boundary of Graaff-Reinet, the name Tulbagh, in honour of the highly esteemed governor of former days. It was proposed that the drostdy should be at Jan Dissel’s-Vlei, where the village of Clanwilliam was built a few years afterwards; but as it was doubtful whether a better site could not be found, Mr. Hendrik Lodewyk Bletterman, formerly landdrost of Stellenbosch, was appointed a commissioner to inspect the new district, report upon this matter and the provisional boundary, and make arrangements for opening a court.
On the 1st of August Mr. Hendrik van de Graaff was appointed landdrost of Tulbagh. This gentleman was a nephew of the former governor Van de Graaff and was an officer of the artillery corps when the colony was surrendered to the British forces in 1795. In April 1797 he was appointed a director of the loan bank, in which position he had acquitted himself so well that he was now considered the best man who could be found as landdrost.

Mr. Bletterman sent in a report, in which strong objections were urged against Jan Dissel’s-Veli being made the seat of magistracy on account of its being cut off from the eastern part of the district by a very rugged tract of land. He recommended instead the farm Rietvlei close to Roodezand’s church. This farm belonged to a man named Hercules du Pre , who was Willing to sell it for 1,111 L. The council adopted the report on the 18th of September and extended the district of Tulbagh southward to the Breede river from its junction with the Rex upwards to the western point of the socalled island, thence the Western chain of mountains to Roodezand’s Kloof thence the Little Berg river through the kloof, and thence the mountains of Twenty Four Rivers and Elephant River to the firs-named provisional boundary.
One of the most enterprising and patriotic men in the Netherlands at this time Was Mr. Gysbert Karel van Hogendorp whose name at a later date was intimately connected with the history of his country This gentleman formed a plan of colonising a tract of land in the neighbourhood of Plettenberg’s Bay, by which means he hoped to benefit both the mother country and the dependency.

The design was a large one. Mr. Van Hogendorp was to receive from the government a grant in freehold of an extensive district, comprising forests as well as ground adapted for tillage and pasturage The government was to provide free passages from the Netherlands for such persons as he should send out. These persons were to be farm labourers and artisans, who were to enter into a contract to serve him after their arrival in South Africa for a stated time at fixed wages, after which they were to have plots of ground from thirty to one hundred acres in extent assigned to them. He was then to provide them with stock to farm with, for which he was to receive interest in produce for twenty-five years, at the expiration of which period they could either repay the capital or continue as before.
He intended to have a portion of the land cultivated on his own account, and it was for this purpose that he required the services of the people. A magazine was to be -erected for the storage of produce until it could be exported, and for the sale of clothing and other goods. There were to be no slaves in the new settlement.
A saw-mill, with the best appliances then known, was constructed and made ready to be forwarded to South Africa, for he intended to prepare timber for exportation. The production of wool was another of his objects, and with this view he purchased a flock of choice Spanish sheep, which he kept under his own eye in Holland, that he might be able to send out rams yearly.

Mr. Van Hogendorp took as an associate a retired military officer named Von Buchenroeder, who had a very high opinion of his own abilities, but who – as General Janssens said -succeeded in nothing, because he was a mere theorist. In Holland there had been living for some time a colonist named Hermanus Vermaak who was one of those banished for political opinions during the British occupation and who did not fail to speak of the land of his birth in the highest terms. He returned in 1803 as one of Mr. Van Hogendorp’s agents in South Africa, the attorney-general Beelaerts van Blokland being the other.

Both Mr. D Mist and General Janssens were very willing to assist in the settlement of industrious European immigrants. They could not sufficiently express their regret that the mistake had been made of introducing negro slaves into the country; but they were of opinion that it was not too late partly to repair that error. If Europeans in considerable numbers could be obtained as immigrants and further importations of blacks be prevented, in course of time the negroes already in the country might have a tract of land assigned to them where they could live by themselves, and the remainder of the colony thus be made a pure European settlement. A stringent regulation was put in force that not a negro should be landed without the special permission of the government being first obtained. Holding these views, the authorities were averse even to the sale of a few slaves from ships that called, and though in several instances under pressing circumstances such sales were authorised, the number of negroes added to the population while Mr. De Mist and General Janssens were at the head of affairs was very small.

In April 1803 Major Von Buchenroeder arrived with a. party of immigrants, consisting of twenty two men, four women, and five children, when all that was possible was done to aid him. It was believed in Holland that the whole country in the neighbourhood of Plettenberg’s Bay was capable of supporting a dense agricultural population, and as General Janssens had already formed a different opinion, he did not assign a tract of land to Mr. Van Hogendorp but advised that the most suitable vacant ground should first be selected by a competent person.

Major Von Buchenroeder regarded himself as the best judge of a proper locality, and he made a tour along the coast, concerning which he afterwards published a small volume that proves how just was the governor’s estimate of his character. Before his return to Cape Town intelligence of the outbreak of war in Europe was received, which practically put an end to the colonisation scheme, though another party, consisting of fifteen men, six women, and sixteen children was sent from Holland by Mr. Van Hogendorp. These people, however never reached South Africa, as they were forwarded by way of the United States, and preferred to stay there instead of proceeding farther.

Meantime the men brought out by Major Von Buchenroeder ascertained that employment could readily be had in Cape Town on terms much more lucrative to them than the wages for which they had contracted before leaving Holland. Mr. Van Hogendorp had advanced them money for outfits, and his agents tried to keep them to their engagements; but most of them gave ceaseless trouble. Von Buehenroeder, too, worried the government with long memorials and endless complaints, until the commissioner found it necessary to deal very abruptly with him. A tract of land in the valley above Hout Bay was offered to Mr. Van Hogendorp’s agents to make a trial with, and the major was sent back to Holland.

The end of the matter was that in 1806 one man only of the people brought out was living on the ground, and he was getting a living as a woodcutter. There was not a square yard of the soil under cultivation. Mr. Van Hogendorp had forwarded a quantity of stores and implements from Holland, but most had been lost in two shipwrecks. The failure of the design was complete, and the promoter was some thousands of pounds out of pocket by it, without any return whatever.
Among the measures devised by Mr. De Mist for the advancement of the colony was the appointment of a commission to carry out improvements in agriculture and stockbreeding, and particularly for the conversion of Cape sheep into merinos. The commission consisted of a president, a vice-president, and twelve members experienced in farming operations, who were appointed in May 1804. No salaries were attached to their duties. The tract of land called Groote Post, at Groenekloof, was allotted to them, and paper money to the amount of 4,167 L was stamped and assigned as a fund to work with. Hopes were entertained in Holland of the colony becoming a great wool-producing country, and some Cape wool was woven into cloth at Amsterdam and sent back to show the farmers what could be done. The commission imported some Spanish rams, and within two years the number of wool-bearing sheep in the colony was increased to eleven thousand; but slaughter stock was still so scarce and dear that very few breeders could be induced to exchange weight of carcase for quality of fleece. To try to improve the quality of Cape wine, a man of experience in Rhenish vineyards was engaged and brought out. Experiments were again commenced with that Willo’-the-wisp of the early government in South Africa, the olive. On this occasion the plants were brought from Portugal.

On the 25th of July 1804 an important ordinance was published by the commissioner-general. It declared that all religious societies which for the furtherance of virtue and good morals worshipped an Almighty Being were to enjoy in this colony equal protection from the laws, that no civil privileges were to be attached to any creed, but that no religious association might hold public worship or meet in public assembly without the knowledge and consent of the governor. The time was ripe for freedom of public worship in Cape Town, but in the country people were not yet prepared for such liberal measures, and they did not regard with favour an enactment that gave to Jews, Roman Catholics, and Mohamedans the same civil rights as themselves. As yet the whole rural population of European blood adhered to the Dutch reformed church. In Cape Town there were residents professing almost every shade of religious belief, and in the castle itself in October 1805 a room was fitted up as a chapel, in which a Roman Catholic clergyman conducted service for the soldiers of his creed.

The Dutch reformed remained the established church of the country, however, to the extent that its clergymen were appointed by the government and drew their salaries from the public treasury. Their number in Cape Town was reduced to two, of whom the senior received a salary of 333 L. 6s. 8d., and the junior 300 L a year, with no other emoluments whatever. In June 1804 the reverend Mr. Serrurier, after forty-four years’ service, retired on a pension, leaving Messrs. Fleck and Von Manger to perform the duties. It was intended that a clergyman should be stationed at each of the drostdies and at Drakenstein and Zwartland, but it was not possible to obtain a sufficient number. During the time that the colony remained a dependency of the Batavian Republic only one new name was added to the list: that of the reverend Jan Augustus Schutz, who called in a ship in September 1803, and accepted the appointment to the church of Swellendam, from which the reverend Mr. Ballot had been removed to Roodezand in May of the same year. The churches of Drakenstein and Graaff-Reinet remained without clergymen, and no church could be formed at Uitenhage. All the ministers in the country districts received the same salary: 166 L. 13s. 4d a year, with a house and a garden.

The ordinance which granted equal civil rights to persons of every creed also provided for the establishment of schools under control of the government and not belonging to any religious body. This was a measure altogether in advance of the times, and met with such decided opposition from the farmers that nowhere except in Cape Town could such schools be founded. Better no education at all from books than instruction not based on religion was the cry from one end of the colony to the other. Before the country again changed its owners there was not time to settle this question; but had there been, without doubt the government must have given way, or have forfeited the confidence of the burghers.
Another ordinance of the commissioner-general-though it was not published until the 31st of October 1804, after he had laid down his authority-facilitated the celebration of marriages. Prior to this date all persons desiring to be married were required to appear before the matrimonial court in Cape Town, to show that there were no legal impediments. Prom this court a license was obtained, and they could then either be married by a clergyman in Cape Town, or return to their own district and be married by the clergyman of the congregation of which they were members, The ordinance of Mr. De Mist provided that after the 1st of January 1805 marriages were to take place before the landdrost and two heemraaden of the district in which the bride had lived for the previous three months. The necessity for a journey to Cape Town was thus done away with, and quite as good security was provided against improper Unions.

It was the commissioner-general De Mist who gave to Cape Town the coat-of-arms now used by the authorities of the city. He adapted the devices from the escutcheon of Abraham van Riebeek, who was born here, and who was governor-general of Netherlands India from 1709 to 1713. Possibly that gentleman’s father, Jan van Riebeek may have used a coat-of-arms with three annulets in it. Mr. De Mist thought it likely that he had, but there is no certainty about it, though the probabilities are very much greater than that the portrait in the town-house, which is commonly said to be Jan van Riebeek’s, really is a likeness of the founder of the colony. The commissioner-general made the adoption of the coat-of-arms by the city of Cape Town an occasion for festivity. It was the 3rd of July 1804. There was an entertainment in the town-house, and in the evening the buildings along the principal streets were illuminated.

The paper currency of the colony was increased in quantity by the commissioner-general, though the government now admitted that it had depreciated in value. When the colony was transferred to the Batavian Republic, there were in circulation one million seven hundred and eighty-six thousand two hundred and seventy-five rixdollars, which at four English shillings to the rixdollar-its nominal value- represented 357,2551. On the 30th of March 1804 the commissioner-general issued fresh notes to the amount of seventy-five thousand rixdollars, for the purpose of relieving the sufferers by a fire in the village of Stellenbosch on the 28th of December 1803, when the mill, the parsonage. twenty-four private dwelling-houses, and fourteen warehouses and stores were totally destroyed (*Some time afterwards it was discovered that this calamity was caused by an incendiary, a Bengalese slave named Patientie. He was punished with death for the crime.)
A few months later notes to the amount of twenty-five thousand rixdollars were issued to provide a fund for the commission for the improvement of agriculture and stockbreeding to work with, fifty thousand rixdollars to erect the necessary buildings at the new drostdies of Uitenhage and Tulbagh, and one hundred and fifty thousand rixdollars to erect granaries, a hail of justice, and a prison in Cape Town. The last sum was not, however, used for the purpose originally intended, but as a measure of necessity was placed in the military chest. The whole quantity of notes in circulation was thus raised to two millions eighty-six thousand two hundred and seventy-five rixdollars, of which eight hundred and forty-five thousand rixdollars formed the capital of the loan bank. Most of this paper was worn and nearly defaced, and some of it differed in style from other; so it was all called in, and new notes uniform in appearance, though varying in colour according to the amount represented, were issued in exchange. On this occasion a trifling sum was ascertained to have been lost, so that notes representing only two millions and eighty- six thousand rixdollars were stamped. The paper rixdollar was now computed in the government accounts as well as in private transactions at two gulden of Holland, or three shillings and four pence English money, so that the whole amount in circulation was equal to 347,666 L. 13s. 4d.

There are strong indications in the official documents that both Mr. De Mist and General Janssens were not unfavourably disposed towards the Orange party, though they served the Batavian Republic faithfully. They were very jealous of French influence. In December 1803 an agent arrived from Mauritius, and wished to be termed French Resident; but they would not accord him that title, though they were careful not to offend him. When a French fleet put in and the admiral applied for provisions in a time of scarcity, the commissioner-general instructed the governor to give him what he needed, as it would not do to refuse, though payment might be doubtful.

Another instance of jealousy of French influence occurred in the treatment of a man named George Francis Grand, who arrived in South Africa in April 1803, and claimed the position of privy councillor and the second place in the government The commissioner-.general De Mist knew nothing whatever of the man or the office, and he was not as much as named in any despatches received from Holland. His pretensions were therefore disregarded, though he was treated with courtesy. He was by birth a Swiss, but had been for many years in the service of the English East India Company, and had held important situations in Hindostan until for some unexplained cause he was dismissed. He could not speak a word of Dutch. At length, particulars concerning him were received from Holland, when it appeared that he had been appointed consulting councillor, with a salary of 166L. 18s. 4d. a year. He had been for some time separated, but not legally divorced, from his wife, owing to her seduction by the celebrated Philip Francis; and she was then married to a French minister of state of the highest rank. This being the secret of Grand’s appointment, Mr. De Mist did not pay much regard to his importunate requests for a seat in the Council, if not the second place in the government. He was informed that he would be consulted in matters relating to the Indian trade, of which he was supposed to have special knowledge; and to this vague position he was at length obliged to submit.

On the 25th of September 1804 Mr. De Mist formally laid down his authority as commissioner-general so that the governor might be more free to act with vigour. The great question of the time was how to place the Colony in a condition for defence, as no one doubted that sooner or later it would be attacked by the English. Mr. De Mist did not profess to know anything of military matters, and thought that the governor, upon whom the responsibility would fall, should have sole authority, though they had worked together in perfect concord. There are many indications that they were both too far advanced in modern opinions to remain popular in this country much longer, unless they made large concessions to the sentiments of the colonists. General Janssens was the more flexible of the two. He was already beginning to see plainly that a body of people secluded from intercourse with Europe for more than a century could not be dealt with in the same manner as men who had lived in the whirl of the French revolution.

Mr. De Mist resided at Stellenburg, close to Wynberg, from August to November 1804, when he removed to Maastricht, at the Tigerberg. On the 24th of February 1805 he embarked in the American ship Silenus, and on the following day sailed for the United States. So entirely was Dutch commerce driven from the seas that there was no other way by which he could return to Europe.

In January 1805 a post for the conveyance of letters and the Government Gazette was established between Cape Town and the various drostdies. A mail bag was conveyed weekly by post-riders to Stellenbosch and Tulbagh, and to the other drostdies whenever the government wished to send despatches. In this case farmers along the lines of road contracted to forward the bag from one station to another, and the landdrosts sent the letters and papers to the fieldcomets with the first convenience.

As the northern boundary proclaimed by Lord Macartney it not include all the occupied farms, and as in one place it was somewhat obscure, on the 20th of February 1805 the council rectified it by resolving that it should thenceforth be the Koussie or Buffalo river from its mouth to its source in the Koperberg, thence south-eastward in as nearly as possible a straight line-but following the mountains-to the junction of the Zak and Riet rivers, thence the Zak river to its source in the Nieuwveld mountains, thence the Nieuwveld mountains to the Sneeuwberg, and thence northeastward a line enclosing the Great Table mountain to the Zeekoe river at Plettenberg’s beacon. The eastern boundary as defined by Lord Macartney was not changed, though it was worded differently, namely, as the Zuurberg, thence a line along the western side of the Bamboesberg enclosing the Tarka and Kwadehoek and passing along the foot of the Tarka mountain through Kagaberg to the junction of th Baviaans’ and Fish rivers, and thence the Fish river to the sea.

It has already been stated that the high court of justice was independent of the executive and legislative branches of the government. It was intended that all the judges should be appointed in Holland, and should be removable only by the supreme authorities there. The full court was to consist of a president and six members. As one of the judges had not arrived, and as there was good reason to suppose that he would never reach South Africa, on the 6th of October 1803 the commissioner-general, with the concurrence of the governor and the council, appointed Mr. Jan Henoch Neethling, a doctor of laws, to the vacant place. The office of secretary to the, council, which he had previously held, was given to Mr. Jan Andries Truter. Mr. Gerrit Buyskes, the secretary’ to the high court, who was appointed in Holland, did not arrive until two years later.

The inferior courts were remodelled by an ordinance enacted by the governor and council in October 1805.

The landdrosts were to remain, as before, the chief representative of the supreme authority in their respective districts. They were to guard the rights of the inhabitants to personal freedom and possession of their property; to encourage industry, education, the extension of agriculture, and the improvement of cattle; to maintain peace and friendship with the aborigines beyond the border; to protect the Hottentots in their rights as a free people; to preserve forests, and encourage tree-planting; ‘to keep a record of land-grants of every kind, and to prevent the alienation of vacant ground to the prejudice of the public; to receive revenue; to take preparatory examinations in charges of crime; to cause deserters and vagrants to be arrested, and to send them, together with prisoners charged with the commission of serious offences, to Cape Town for trial; and to protect slaves from ill-treatment. Their power of inflicting punishment upon slaves was limited to imprisonment for six months, the infliction of a moderate number of lashes, or placing the culprit in chains. In cases of petty crime, for which the law provided penalties not exceeding fifty rix dollars the landdrosts were left at liberty to compound with the offenders without public trial. The office of auctioneer was separated from that of landdrost, and was attached to that of district secretary. Each landdrost was to be provided with a house, a garden, and a cattle run. He was to have a salary of two thousand five hundred rix-dollars a year, and was to be entitled to specified fees for certain duties. The landdrost of Stellenbosch was to have five hundred rix-dollars a year extra salary.

In each district there were to be six heemraden, selected from the most respectable and trustworthy burghers. The qualifications of these officers were the attainment of thirty years of age, residence in the district for three years, and the possession of freehold property or the occupation of a leasehold farm. They were to receive no salaries or emoluments, as their office was to be regarded as one of honour. On the formation of a new district the heemraden were to be appointed by the governor; but at the end of each succeeding year the two who had served longest were to retire, when the governor was to select their successors from a list of four names supplied by the board. A session of the court of landdrost and heemraden was to be held monthly in the districts of Stellenbosch and Tulbagh, quarterly in the other districts. The landdrost was to preside, except in case of unavoidable absence, when the senior heemraad was to take the chair. The landdrost and four heemraden were to form a quorum.

This court had jurisdiction in all disputes concerning the boundaries of farms and the impounding of cattle, all suits connected with auction sales, and all civil cases in which the amount contested was less than three hundred rix-dollars. There was a right of appeal from its decisions to that of the high court of justice in eases over the value of twenty-five rix-dollars. The landdrost and heemraden were to perform the duties of coroners. They had charge also of the highways, and generally of such matters as were carried out at the expense of the district. In their judicial capacity they were responsible only to the high court of justice, and criminal cases – were reported by them to the attorney-general. In all other matters they were responsible to the governor.

There was a very useful class of officers, termed field – comets, whose sphere of duty other than military had only been recognised of recent years, as they had gradually and almost imperceptibly taken the place of the corporals of militia and the veldwachters of earlier times. The ordinance of October 1805 gave them a better position than they had previously occupied. Every district was now divided into wards, none of which were to be of greater extent than could be ridden across by a man on horseback in six hours; in each of these wards there was to be a fieldcornet, nominated by the landdrost and appointed by the governor. He was to be a man of unblemished character over twenty five years of age, a resident for more than two years in the ward, and in possession of freehold property or in occupation of a leasehold farm. He was to be the representative of the landdrost, to maintain order and tranquillity to settle petty disputes, to keep a register of the people, to make new laws known, and generally to promote industry and whatever might tend to prosperity. He was to be free of district taxation, and was to have a farm without rent or twenty five rix-dollars a year.

For military purposes the fieldcornets were to call out and lead the burghers of their wards whenever required by the landdrost. The burghers were divided into three classes. The first to be called upon for personal service were those between sixteen and thirty years of age, next those between thirty and forty-five and lastly those between forty-five and sixty years of age. If all the men of a class were not needed, the unmarried and those without employment were to be called out before the others. Such as were not called upon for personal service were to be assessed to supply food, horses, and means of transport. When in the field, the several divisions of the burgher militia of each district were under the general orders either of the landdrost or of a commandant appointed by the governor, and the fieldcornets often had the title of captain conferred upon them. In this manner the whole European population of the colony was organised for military purposes.

During recent years reports of various kinds had reached Cape Town concerning the settlements formed by agents of the London missionary society north of the Orange river, and as some of these reports were to the effect that a community hostile to the colony was growing up there, the government resolved to send a commission to inspect the settlements and obtain accurate information. The officers chosen for this purpose were Landdrost Van de Graaff, of Tulbagh, and Dr. Henry Lichtenstein, surgeon of the Hottentot corps. In May 1805 these gentlemen left Tulbagh, and travelling by way of Karoo Poort, reached the colonial boundary without difficulty. Along the route they heard numerous complaints of depredations by Bushmen, and ascertained that the arrangements made with these people in former years had completely failed in their object.

At the mission station on the Zak river they found the colonist Christiaan Botma in charge during the reverend Mr. Kicherer’s absence in Europe. The Bushmen gathered together here had dispersed as soon as the missionaries’ means of providing them with food failed, and only about forty individuals remained, most of whom were half-breeds that had from youth professed Christianity. Botma, the teacher, was a man of great zeal, and had expended a large portion of his private property in maintaining the station; but it seemed to the commission that the principles on winch the work was being conducted were decidedly wrong. Religious services were .frequently held, and were attended by everyone on the place. But industry was not enforced, and the habits of the people formed a striking contrast to those of the residents at the Moravian institution in the district of Stellenbosch. The mission was doing no harm politically or in any other way, though it appeared to be of very little service to the few people under its influence.
Here a party of farmers joined the travellers as an escort, making the whole number up to eight Europeans, twelve Hottentots, and five slaves. On the southern bank of the Orange a horde of Kosas was met, under two near relatives of the chief Ndlambe who had wandered away from their own country.

The Orange was crossed at Prieska Drift. On its northern bank the missionaries Vanderlingen and Jan Kock were met, journeying from the Batlapin country towards the Cape. Kock, who understood the Setshuana language was easily persuaded to send his family on to the station at the Zak river, and return with the commission.
At Lauw-waters-kloof which was reached on the same day, a number of half-breeds and Koranas were found. Here two more missionaries Koster and Janssen by name were met returning from the Batlapin country, having abandoned the work there. Lauw-waters-kloof was ascertained to be one of six mission villages inhabited by half- breeds and Koranas, with several Namaquas and a few blacks and Hottentots from the Cape Colony. The other five were Rietfontein, Witwater, Taaiboschfontein Leeuwen kuil, and Ongeuksfontein. In these villages nearly a thousand people were living, many of whom were half-breeds that had been wandering along the southern bank of the Orange for fifteen or twenty years, before the missionaries induced them to settle down to receive instruction. Among them were also several individuals who had grown up in the families of colonists These had always worn European clothing, and were baptized professors of Christianity before the arrival of the missionaries.

The district in which the villages were situated – [since 1880 the colonial division of Hay] had from time immemorial been occupied by Koranas and Bushmen, who were at bitter feud with each other. The half-breeds, Namaquas and colonial Hottentots were recent immigrants who had come in with the missionaries. Smallpox in a mild form was prevalent among the people, and was said to have been brought from the north, but how or when was not ascertained. It had been unknown in the Cape Colony since 1769, and most likely had spread overland from Delagoa Bay.
At Leeuwenkuil the missionary Anderson was then residing. The travellers were greatly impressed with his devotion to his work, and with the exemplary life he was leading. He and Mr. Kramer were the only white men living in the district, the others who had formerly assisted them having retired from that field.

The commission found that nothing was to be feared from this settlement. Mr. Anderson regarded himself as subject to the colonial government, and the half-breeds, who gained their subsistence chiefly by hunting, were so dependent upon Europeans for ammunition and other necessaries that their engaging in hostilities was out of the question.
From Ongeluksfontein, the farthest of the six villages to the north, the travellers set out for the Batlapin country. Since the journey of Messrs. Truter and Somerville to Lithako in 1801, a good deal had been heard of the Betshuana, but the different accounts by no means agreed. Among those who supplied information was the reverend Mr. Edwards. This missionary, who might be supposed to know more than any other European about the Batlapin, left the Kuruman river towards the close of 1803, and visited Cape Town, where he gave the government a description in writing of the people he had been living with, some portions of which could only be regarded as fabulous. For instance, he stated that they regarded his wife as a goddess, and offered him a great number of cattle for a daughter born at Molehabangwe’s kraal. In March 1805 he wished to return, but the council declined to give him permission and shortly afterwards Messrs. Van de Graaff and Lichtenstein were instructed to include the Batlapin country in their tour.

A little beyond Ongeluksfontein the travellers met a waggon containing the families of two half-breed brothers named Jantje and David Bergover, who had been in Jan Kock’s service on the Kururman river. They had left the Kururman with a view of following Kock to the mission station on the Zak river, but had been attacked on the way by Bushmen, and the two men and one little girl had been murdered. The party from the south arrived just in time’ to rescue the other children and the women.

In the valley of the Kuruman the first Batlapin were found. The principal kraal of Molehabangwe was then only a short distance from the spot where that stream issues with great force from a cavern. The kraal was found to consist of five or six hundred huts, and to contain about five thousand people. The year after Messrs. Truter and Somerville’s visit, the Barolong under Makraki had separated from the Batlapin, and had moved away to the neighbourhood of their kinsmen in the north. This migration reduced the kraal to one-third of its former size. The commission was received in a friendly manner by the old chief Mlolehabangwe, and by his sons Mothibi, Telekela, Molimo, and Molala. There were no missionaries remaining on the Kuruman, all who had been there having left for the Colony; but it was Jan Kock’s intention to return. The commission could not ascertain that any of them except Kook had made the slightest impression upon the people, and what benefit had been derived from his teaching was in an improved method of tilling the ground, not in the adoption of Christianity.

Of the Betshuana tribes to the north – the Barolong, Bahurutsi, Bangwaketsi, Bakwena and others which have since disappeared – some information was gathered, but it was not very reliable. The existence of slavery among these tribes, which was not suspected by Messrs. Truter and Somerville, was proved beyond all doubt. In fact two boys were offered for sale to the commission at the price of a sheep each. But the abject state in which the slaves were living at a distance from the principal kraal was not made known until some years later.
The Kuruman was the farthest point reached by the expedition. During the return journey nothing occurred that was of more than passing interest, and the travellers arrived safely at Tulbagh again after an absence of three months.
On the 14th of May 1804 the whaling schooner Hope was wrecked near Walfish Bay. The crew got safely to land, and left the wreck with a view of trying to make their way along the coast to Cape Town. On the 20th they were attacked by a party of Hottentots, and all were killed except two sailors, who were badly wounded, but were rescued on the following day by an English whaler.

On the 3rd of November 1805 during a violent gale from the north-west, three American ships were driven ashore in Table Bay, and became total wrecks. The French frigate Atalante also went ashore, and was dismasted and otherwise damaged, but was got afloat again after the storm subsided.

In 1805 the European population of the whole colony, according to the census returns, consisted of twenty-five thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven individuals, exclusive of soldiers. They owned twenty-nine thousand five hundred and forty five slaves, and had in their service under agreements twenty thousand and six Hottentots, half-breeds, and Bushmen. It is impossible to say how many Hottentots were living at their own kraals, or Bushmen roaming about, for these people paid no taxes and therefore no notice was ever taken of them by the census framers. Those in service and their families were registered, in order that they might be protected. Cape Town contained, in addition to public edifices of various kinds, one thousand two hundred and fifty-eight houses and stores, and had a population of six thousand two hundred and seventy-three Europeans, one thousand one hundred and thirty Asiatics and free blacks, nine thousand one hundred and twenty-nine slaves, and four hundred and fifty-two Hottentots.

From the time that news was received of the renewal of the war, General Janssens made unceasing efforts to prepare for the defence of the colony. There were a good many British subjects in the country, mostly men who had settled here as traders during the English occupation. In February 1804 a proclamation was issued, ordering them all to leave in neutral ships within two months; but this was not enforced. After the 8th of October 1804 they were required by proclamation to reside in Stellenbosch, and could only leave that village with a pass from the governor stating the object and time of their absence. Some, however, who were married into colonial families, or who had farming interests that would suffer by their being away, were excepted, and were permitted to remain at their homes on giving a pledge that they would do nothing hostile to the Dutch in the event of the colony being attacked.

The Hottentot infantry regiment, six hundred strong, was brought to such an efficient state that it was regarded as a really serviceable corps. Its officers were colonists who understood the character of the men and how to manage them. Frans le Sueur, who was in command, had the title of lieutenant-colonel.

In November 1804 the Asiatics in and about Cape Town were enrolled as volunteers in a corps termed the Javanese or Malay artillery. They were drilled with field-guns and to work the cannon in the forts, until the governor pronounced them a highly efficient and reliable body of auxiliaries.

An attempt was made to lay up a supply of grain at the old Company’s estate Ziekenhuis behind the mountains of Hottentots-Holland, so that if Cape Town should fall, the army could retreat and cut off supplies from the invader. But this could not be carried out, as the crop of 1803-4 was a poor one, and that of 1804-5 unusually bad. In December 1805 the government was offering the farmers around the Cape for the wheat then being reaped sixteen shillings and eight pence a muid*, from which only one shilling a muid was to be deducted instead of the tithe. About Zwartkops River good crops were being gathered, and Captain Alberti was instructed to try to secure a quantity at Algoa Bay at eleven shillings and eight pence a muid clear. But this season’s harvest was not’ out of the farmers’ hands in January 1806. [*In French, various large measures of capacity. From the Latin modius. Conceptually, the muid was originally a wagon load. The word muid is a form of measurement - a muid can be a wagon load of wheat, also used is measuring salt and wine]

General Janssens was doing his utmost to excite a martial spirit among the burghers. Drills and reviews were more frequent than ever before, flattering addresses were made by the governor on every opportunity, and no event in which bravery or patience was displayed was allowed to pass by without notice. As an instance, on the 20th of February 1805 three corporals and twenty-eight privates of the Hottentot corps deserted with their arms from the camp at Wynberg. They were pursued by parties of mounted burghers, but they were not captured until the corporals were all shot, when the privates surrendered. In skirmishing with the deserters, a burgher named Mattheus Zaaiman was killed, and Jan Roux and Jan Swanepoel were wounded. At the instance of the governor, the council hereupon resolved to give to Zaaiman’s parents, Roux, and Swanepoel farms free of quitrent for life; and to present silver goblets with suitable inscriptions on them to the militia captains Willem Wium, Willem Morkel, Jan Linde, and Pieter Human.

The regular European troops of all arms were between fifteen and sixteen hundred in number. No reinforcements had been sent out, since the transfer of the colony, though the original strength of the regiments in garrison was greatly reduced by desertion, ordinary mortality, and unusually heavy losses from a very malignant form of dysentery which was prevalent in November and December 1804, when most of the soldiers were in a camp on the Liesbeek river. The troops were distributed over the Cape peninsula, except a detachment of eighty men at Fort Frederick. They were poorly clad, and a supply of clothing was urgently needed. From the almost exhausted treasury of the Batavian Republic, General Janssens had drawn until recently money at the rate of l00,000 a year for military purposes of all kinds, but he was now trying to manage with a smaller sum.

So matters stood at the Cape at the close of the year 1805. For a long time an attack had been, expected, and within the last few days tidings were received which set every one on the alert. On the 24th and 25th of December the French privateer Napoleon, which had recently brought some fifty English prisoners of war from Mauritius to the – Cape and then went to cruise in the route of homeward- bound ships, was chased by an English frigate, and, to avoid capture, was run ashore on the coast south of Hout Bay.

Her crew brought the intelligence to Cape Town, and it was suspected that the frigate had companions. Then came a vessel with a report that she had passed in the Atlantic a great fleet steering south, and on the 28th another arrived with news that a large number of English ships had sailed from Madeira on the 4th of October.

The fleet which was thus announced as likely to be approaching was in fact fitted out for the conquest of the Cape Colony. In July 1805, by Lord Castlereagh’s order, the 59th regiment of infantry, the 20th light dragoons, three hundred and twenty artillerymen, and five hundred and forty-six recruits were embarked at Falmouth in transports belonging to the East India Company, which put to sea under convoy of his Majesty’s ships Espoir, Encounter and Projector. Their destination was announced to be the East Indies, but they sailed under secret orders to wait at ]Madeira and join a larger force which was to follow. Shortly afterwards, the 24th, 38th, 71st, 72nd, 83rd, and 93rd regiments of the line were embarked in transports at Cork, ostensibly for the Mediterranean and, accompanied by victuallers, tenders, and merchantmen sailed under protection of three ships of sixty-four guns- the Diadem, Raisonnable and Belliquex, – one ship of fifty guns -the Diomede , – and two of thirty-two guns-the Narcissus and Leda. This fleet was intended to join the other at Madeira, and proceed in company to the Cape of Good hope. The naval force was under command of Commodore Home Popham, and the troops – in all six thousand six hundred and fifty-four rank and file – were under Major Gen. David Baird. This officer was well acquainted with the Cape and its fortifications, having served here under General Dundas for eleven months in 1798.

The expedition left England almost without notice, as other events were then engaging attention throughout Europe. The great French army, which was generally believed to be intended for the invasion of England, was still encamped at Boulogne when the fleet sailed. While it was on its way to the Cape, the Austrians capitulated at Ulm, the battle of Trafalgar was fought, a French army entered Vienna, and issues were decided in comparison with which the fate of the Cape Colony dwindled into insignificance.

In the morning of the 4th of January 1806 signals on the Lion’s rump made known that numerous sails were in sight, and that evening the ships – sixty-three in number came to anchor between Robben Island and the Blueberg shore. It was General Baird’s intention to land his army next morning at a curve in the coast north of Melkbosch Point, from which Cape Town could be reached by a march of about sixteen miles; but during the night a gale set in, and in the morning of the 5th such a heavy surf was rolling on the shore that landing was impossible.

Image: David Baird

The general then resolved to disembark his troops at Saldanha Bay, though from that port the soldiers would be obliged to make a long and weary march, and it would be necessary to keep open communication with the fleet by means of detachments posted at several stations along the route. During the night of the 5th, the Diomede, with some transports conveying the 38th regiment of foot, the 20th light dragoons, and some artillery, under command of Brigadier-Genera1 Beresford, set sail for Saldanha Bay. The squadron was preceded by the Espoir, which was sent in advance to take possession of the port and secure as many cattle as possible.

The remainder of the fleet would have followed next morning, but at daybreak it was observed that the surf had gone down considerably. A careful examination of the shore was made, and it was found that a landing might be effected. The Diadem, Leda, Encounter, and Protector were moored so as to cover the beach with their heavy guns, and a small transport was run aground in such a manner as to form a breakwater off the landing-place. The Highland brigade, composed of the 71st, 72nd, and 93rd regiments, under command of Brigadier-General Ferguson, was then conveyed on shore. The sea was still breaking with considerable violence, but only one boat was swamped. It – contained thirty-five men of the 93rd regiment, all of whom were drowned. The 24th, 59th, and 83rd regiments were landed on the 7th, with some artillery and sufficient provisions for the immediate wants of the army. The debarkation was attended with only the trifling loss of two soldiers wounded by a company of burgher militia under Commandant Jacobus Linde, who were sent to reconnoitre.
Meantime General Janssens had assembled as many men as possible under arms. Eight hours after the fleet came in sight, the fact was known in Swellendam by means of signal guns fired from hill to hill, and before the following morning the whole country within a hundred and fifty miles of Cape Town was apprised of the event. There was saddling and riding in haste, but in the short time that elapsed before the fate of the colony was decided it was impossible to make a formidable muster. It was the worst time of year for the farmers to leave their homes, as the wheat was being threshed and the grapes were beginning to ripen, while the heat was so intense that journeys could only be performed by night without utter exhaustion of man and beast.

As soon as it was known that the English were landing on the Blueberg beach, General Janssens marched to meet them, leaving in Cape Town a considerable burgher force and a few soldiers under Lieutenant-Colonel Von Prophalow to guard the forts and protect the town in the event of its being attacked during his absence. He had altogether an army rather over two thousand strong, but composed of a strange mixture of men. There were two hundred and twenty-four mounted burghers, under Commandants Linde, Human, and Wium. There was the fifth battalion of Waldeck, which was a body of German mercenary troops, four hundred strong; the 22nd regiment of the line, three hundred and fifty-eight strong, and the 9th battalion of jagers, two hundred and two strong, raised by recruiting from all the nations of Europe; and one-hundred and thirty-. eight dragoons and one hundred and sixty artillerymen, who were mostly Dutch by birth. Then there were the crews of the French ships Atalante and Napoleon, two hundred and forty men, under Colonel Gaudin Beauchene who was commandant of marines in the Atalante. And lastly, there were fifty-four Javanese artillerymen, one hundred and eighty one Hottentot foot-soldiers, and one hundred and four slaves from Mozambique in the artillery train. The field-guns were sixteen in number,*’ of various sizes [* In General Bairds report, it is stated that the Dutch had twenty three cannon, but General Janssens gives only sixteen, and his military returns made before battle are very incomplete in detail. The British general also greatly over estimated the Dutch force.].

At three o’clock in the morning of Wednesday the 8th of January 1806 this motley force was under arms, and was advancing towards Blueberg from the dunes beyond Rietvlei, where the night had been spent, when the scouts brought word that the English were approaching. At five o’clock the British troops were seen descending the shoulder of the Blueberg, marching in the cool of the morning towards Cape Town. General Baird had formed his army in two columns. That on the right, consisting of the 24th, 59th, and 83rd regiments, was commanded by his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Baird. The left column was the Highland brigade, under Brigadier-General Ferguson. Altogether there were about four thousand rank and file, besides the artillerymen and five or six hundred sailors armed with pikes and drawing two howitzers and six field-guns.

The Dutch general extended his force in a line covering the whole English front. He knew that victory was almost hopeless, and he had long before placed on record his fixed conviction that the Cape Colony was too great a burden to be borne by the exhausted mother country, and that as it could not be held without heavy expense its loss would really be an advantage. But it was his duty to defend it, and now all his thoughts were how to make the most stubborn stand. He rode along the front of the line, saying a few encouraging words to the men, and met with hearty cheers from all except the battalion of Waldeck. These mercenaries were quite as well aware as the general himself that there was hardly a chance of success against the disciplined British troops, and they were not disposed to be shot down for the mere honour of fighting.

By this time the armies were within cannon range, and the artillery on both sides was opening fire A few balls fell on the ground occupied by the Waldeck battalion, and that regiment began to retreat. General Janssens rode up and implored the soldiers to stand firm, but in vain, for their retreat was quickly changed into flight. One wing of the 22nd regiment then began to follow the example of the Waldeckers.. It rallied for a moment under the general’s command, but resumed its flight on observing that the Highland brigade, after firing a volley of musketry at too great a distance to have much effect, was advancing to charge with the bayonet. The burghers, the French corps, the remainder of the troops, and the coloured auxiliaries were behaving well, receiving and answering a heavy fire with artillery and hunting rifles. But the flight of the main body of regular troops made it impossible for the mixed force left on the field to stand the charge of the Highland brigade, and by order of General Janssens the remnant of the army fell back. Adjutant-General Rancke and Colonel Henry were sent to Rietvlei to rally the fugitive soldiers there. The last to leave the field was a company of mounted artillery under Lieutenant Pelegrini, who continued firing until the general in person commanded them to retire. On the spot he promoted the lieutenant to be a captain.

Double click on image to open enlarged version in Acrobat Reader

The loss of the English in the battle of Blueberg was one officer and fourteen rank and file killed, nine officers and one hundred and eighty rank and file wounded, and eight rank and file missing. [ The word file appears exactly as it does in the book - one could assume that the word should be five and not file] The Dutch loss cannot be stated with any pretension to accuracy, for the roll-call when the fugitives were rallied shows the killed, wounded, and missing together, and there are no means of distinguishing one from the other. When the muster was made that afternoon, one hundred and ten Frenchmen, one hundred and eighty-eight soldiers of the different battalions, four burghers, seventeen Hottentots, ten Malays, and eight slaves did not answer to their names. It is tolerably certain that more were killed and wounded on the Dutch than on the English side, though probably the excess was not great. General Janssens himself was struck by a spent ball, but it rebounded from something in his side-pocket without injuring him.

At Rietvlei the defeated army was collected together. The general resolved to retire at once to the mountains of Hottentots-Holland, but he would not take the Waldeck regiment with him, as he declared it unworthy to associate with men of valour. He ordered it immediately to march to Cape Town, that it might be included in whatever terms of capitulation Colonel Von Prophalow could obtain. One company of this regiment had been in another part of the field, and had behaved well. The men asked to be treated differently, and the general gave them the choice of accompanying him or their regiment, when they unanimously accepted the first alternative. The remaining companies of the Waldeck battalion then proceeded to Cape Town. The French sailors and marines had behaved with the utmost bravery, and the French officers only retired from the battlefield in company with the general and Pelegrini’s artillery Janssens was loth to part with them, but Colonel Beauehene represented that they could be of no service in the country, so they also were directed to proceed to Cape Town, and left with expressions of esteem on both sides.

The general next sent an express to Major Horn, who was in command of the garrison of Simonstown, instructing him to set fire to the Bato, an old ship of war which was lying at anchor in Simon’s Bay as a floating fort, to destroy the powder in the magazine, spike the guns in the batteries, and proceed along the shore of False Bay to join him at Hottentots-Holland pass. The garrison of Simonstown consisted of about fifty artillerymen and two companies of the Hottentot regiment. Major Horn carried out his instructions, but so hastily that the Bato was only slightly damaged.

An express was also sent by General Jansseris to Cape Town with a letter to the members of the council, requesting them, while it was still in their power to do so legally, to grant farms in freehold to certain burghers who had been conspicuous for bravery in the battle. The burghers, he remarked, had acted in such a way as to deserve a better fate than to be vanquished. But it was impossible to reward all. The names that he mentioned were those of the commandants Jacobus Linde and Pieter Human, the burghers Pieter Pietersen, Nicholas Swart Ps., Nicholas Swart Ks., Jan Rabe, Dirk Lourens, Servaas de Kock, Nicholas Linde, and Marthinus Theunissen, also Hans Human and Pieter Mosterd, whose brothers were killed. Upon receipt of this letter the councillors De Salis and Wakker lost no time in making the grants and having them properly recorded. Mr. Van Oudtshoorn had long since resigned on account of bodily infirmity and Mr. Van Polanen who only arrived in March 1804, went to Batavia on a special mission at the beginning of 1805, so that there were only the two-De Salis and Wakker – left. This meeting in the evening of the 8th of January was the last but one that was held under the Batavian administration. On the morning of the 9th the two Councillors held another session, and furnished Lieutenant-Colonel Von Prophalow with a small sum of money.

While the general was engaged in making these arrangements the soldiers and burghers were resting, but the remnant of the army flow pushed on to Rooseboom There it halted until eleven o’clock at night, when another march was made towards Hottentots Holland. In the evening the British troops arrived at Rietvlei where they passed the night in the open air.
In the morning of the 9th General Baird resumed his march towards Cape Town. At Salt River it was easy to communicate with the ships, and preparations were made to land a battering train and a supply of provisions. But the battering train was not needed, for Colonel Von Prophalow had no thought of attempting to defend the town, as he could not do so with any prospect of success. He therefore sent a flag of truce to request a suspension of arms for forty eight hours, in order to arrange terms of capitulation. Near Craig’s tower this flag met General Baird, who would only grant thirty six hours, and further required possession within six hours of the lines and Port Knokke. His demand could not be refused, and that evening the 59th regiment took possession of Fort Knokke. At four o’clock in the afternoon of the 10th the articles of capitulation were signed at Papendorp – now Woodstock – by Lieutenant-Colonel Von Prophalow, Major-General Baird, and Commodore Home Popham.

These articles provided that the castle and other fortifications should be immediately surrendered to his Britannic Majesty’s forces. The regular troops forming the garrison, and the Frenchmen of the Atalante and the Napoleon, were to become prisoners of war, and be sent to Great Britain as such, with the exception of officers of the army married into colonial families or possessing landed property in the colony, who were to be at liberty to remain in the country during good behaviour, and with the further exception of such soldier as might choose of their own free will to enlist in his Britannic Majesty’s service. Colonists in arms were to return to their former occupations. Private property of all kinds was to be respected, but property of every description belonging to the Batavian government was to be delivered up. The burghers and other inhabitants were to preserve all their rights and privileges, and public worship as then existing was to be maintained. The paper money in circulation was to continue current until his Majesty’s pleasure could be known, and the public lands and buildings were to remain as security for that portion not lent to individuals. The inhabitants of Cape Town were to be exempted from having troops quartered on them. And two Dutch ships sunk the day before in Table Bay to prevent their seizure were to be raised by those who scuttled them, and delivered over in a perfect state of repair.

Upon General Baird taking possession of Cape Town, he found only two days’ supply of flour and grain on hand.
The wheat of the last crop was nearly ready for delivery by the farmers, but the season had not been a good one, and he quantity was insufficient to meet the wants of the colonists and of the large military and naval force flow added to the number of consumers. A frigate was therefore sent to, St. Helena to procure all the flour and biscuit that could be spared from that island, and as soon as possible three transports sailed for Madras to obtain rice and wheat.
On the morning of the 11th three proclamations were issued by General Baird. In the first, the inhabitants of the country districts were ordered to remain quietly at their respective habitations, and were assured of protection by the British government. Any who should join the Batavian troops under General Janssens, or afford them assistance, were threatened with consequences of the most serious nature; and those inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Cape Town who had retired with the Dutch army were warned that if they did not return forthwith to their usual places of abode, orders would be given for the confiscation of their effects. In the second proclamation the civil servants and the principal inhabitants were required to take an oath of allegiance to his Britannic Majesty at noon that day. And in the third proclamation, Willem Stephanus van Ryneveld,. a staunch friend of the British government, was appointed chief civil magistrate and councillor, “it being General Baird’s intention that all the immediate duties of the civil administration should be executed by him under his Excellency’s own superintendence and directions.”

General Janssens had in the meantime reached the mountains of Hottentots Holland where he might have been able to cut off communication with the eastern part of the country if the British force had not been so overwhelming But of what use could it be to make a stand there ? The farms which produced wheat and wine would soon be subject to the English, and the country beyond would also be open to them by way of the Roodezand kloof. Only one plan of prolonging the struggle therefore remained, which was to retire to the distant interior and await the arrival of a French expedition to recover the Colony. But this did not appear very feasible. The most that could be said of the position in which he was placed resolved itself at last into this, that it was more favourable for obtaining terms than if be bad fallen back upon Cape Town after the defeat at Blueberg.

Within the next three days he learned that two English regiments had taken possession of the village of Stellenbosch and the Roodezand kloof, and that another regiment was about to proceed by sea to Mossel Bay, with a view of securing the Attaqua pass in the rear of his position. He ascertained also that the English general had required all the saddle-horses in the town to be taken to the barracks, where they were appraised and pressed into service, with a promise that if they were not returned to their owners when tranquillity was restored, they would be paid for. The greater number of the farmers with him being residents of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, he advised them to return to their homes, as their remaining longer might cause the confiscation of their property. But so attached were they to him and the cause which he represented that it was with difficulty they were persuaded to retire.

General Baird made the first advances, by addressing a letter to General Janssens, in which, after complimenting him for having discharged his duty to his country as became a brave man at the head of a gallant, though feeble, army, he was informed that the British naval and military forces which had possessed themselves of the seat of government were of a magnitude to leave no question respecting the issue of further hostilities, so that a temporary and disastrous resistance was all he could possibly oppose to superior numbers. Under these circumstances, nothing could result but the devastation of the country he casually occupied, and such a consequence could not be contemplated without anguish by a generous mind, or be gratifying to a man who felt for the prosperity of a colony lately subject to his administration. It was therefore trusted that he would show a disposition to promote general tranquillity.

On the 13th this letter was forwarded by Brigadier-General Beresford, who was in command of the troops at Stellenbosch, and who announced at the same time that he was empowered to enter into negotiations for an honourable capitulation. General Janssens desired first to be correctly informed of occurrences at Cape Town, and requested that Mr. Jan Andries Truter, who since October 1803 had been secretary to the council, might be permitted to visit him for that purpose. This was granted, and upon being made acquainted with everything that bad transpired, he consented to the arrangement of terms. Some delay took place, owing to certain clauses proposed by one party being rejected by the other, but at length a draft made by General Janssens arid modified by General Baird was agreed to and signed at Hottentots Holland on the 18th of January.

It provided that the whole settlement should at once be surrendered to his Britannic Majesty. That the Batavian troops should retain all private property, and the officers their swords and horses; but their arms, treasure, and public property of every description should be given up. That the troops should not be considered prisoners of war, but be embarked and sent to Holland at the expense of the British government they engaging not to serve against his Britannic Majesty or his allies before they were landed in Holland. That the officers and men should be subsisted at the expense of the British government until their embarkation, and when on board transports be treated in the same manner as British troops. That the Hottentot soldiers should be allowed to return to their homes, or to enter the British service, as they might think proper. And that the inhabitants of the colony were to enjoy the same rights and privileges as had been granted to those of Cape Town according to the capitulation of the 10th, except that the privilege of quartering soldiers upon them was reserved, as the country had not the same, resources as the town.

The troops composing the force with General Janssens were reduced by desertion within the last few days to one hundred and eighty officers and men of the 22nd battalion of infantry, one hundred and four officers and men of the 9th battalion of jagers, fifty-two officers and men of the 5th battalion of Waldeck, one hundred and forty-six dragoons, and one hundred and seventy-seven artillerymen, in all six hundred and fifty-nine individuals, exclusive of a few staff officers, who were to be sent to Holland.

There were also three hundred and forty-three men of the Hottentot regiment and fifty-five men of the artillery train, who were to remain in the country. General Baird directed Major Graham, of the 73rd, to take as many of the Hottentots into the British service as could be induced to enlist. Most of them were willing to remain as soldiers, and they were formed into a corps which was soon afterwards enlarged and became known as the Cape regiment.

A good deal of trouble was caused to General Janssens after the capitulation by an act of the councillors De Salis and Wakker on the 6th of January, when the army was marching to meet the British forces at Blueberg. On that occasion the two councillors apportioned to certain individuals nearly 20,000L from the military chest as compensation for prospective loss of office, with the understanding that the money was to be returned if the British forces were defeated. The transaction was intended to be secret, and no entry was made of it in the record of proceedings. General Baird contended that the money ought to be surrendered, and General Janssens entirely disapproved of what the councillors had done; but it was no easy matter to induce the recipients to restore the amounts that had been awarded to them. Ultimately, however, all except about 1300L was given up. Further trouble was caused by the inability of Colonel Von Prophalow to compel the’ persons who sank the two ships in Table Bay to raise them again that they might be delivered as prizes.

But the controversy upon this matter at length came to an end, and seven cartel ships being prepared, the troops – ninety-four officers and five hundred and seventy-three rank and file – were embarked in them. One of the best of the transports – named the Bellona – was placed at the disposal of General Janssens, who had liberty to select such persons as he wished to accompany him. Thirty-one of the civil servants under the Batavian administration desired to return to Europe, and were allowed passages in the cartel ships. Fifty three women and the same number of children also embarked. Just before going on board the Bellona, General Janssens as his last act in South Africa, addressed a letter, marked private and confidential, to General Baird, in which the following paragraph Occurs:

‘Allow me, sir, to recommend to your protection the inhabitants of this colony, whose happiness and welfare ever since I have been here were the chief objects of my care, and who conducted themselves during that period to my highest satisfaction. Give no credit in this respect to Mr. Barrow nor to the enemies of the inhabitants. They have their faults, but these are more than compensated by good qualities. Through lenity, through marks of affection, and benevolence they may be conducted to any good.’

All being ready, on the 6th of March 1806 the squadron, bearing the last representative of the dominion of the Netherlands over the Cape Colony, set sail for Holland.

To Jan van Riebeeck goes the credit for having made the first attempt to provide services for the travelling public in South Africa. Barely two years after the establishment of the settlement at Table Bay, in 1654, he submitted for the consideration of Geraert Hulst, Director-General of the Dutch East India Company, whose ship Parel was lying in the bay, a request that he (Van Riebeeck) provide, for those visitors for whom facilities could not be furnished at the Fort, ‘a boardinghouse (ordinaris), the keeper to be supplied from the Company’s stores and gardens . . .’ 

Within another two years the Council of Policy, presided over by Van Riebeeck himself, approved a request from ‘the housewife Annetje de Boerin, wife of the Company’s gardener, Hendrick Boom, on account of her eight children, to take out the family income by opening an inn for the feeding and accommodation of men going and coming in passing ships’. The principal condition attached was that she must buy all her liquor from the Company’s own store – the first instance in South Africa of what is today called a ‘tied house’.

On 20 Sept. 1656 Annetje’s establishment met with its first competition when Jannetje Boddijs, of Doesburg, wife of the garrison sergeant, was permitted to open another tavern on similar terms. A fine was to be imposed on any member of the community who, during his working hours, indulged in ‘debauches’. From that date the liquor trade has played a major part in the South African hotel industry.

On a visit to the Cape in Oct. 1657, the Commissioner Rijckloff van Goens sr. confirmed the grant of an innkeeper’s licence to Sergeant Jan van Harwarden, to whom was allocated ‘part of an old sheepfold’ at the Fort as accommodation for travellers. From then on, the number of inns increased, most of them being of a primitive type. Among them may be mentioned De Gouden Anker, De Witte Swaen, De Laatste Penning.

As a rule the lodgers were sailors or soldiers whose demands were modest and who expected shelter for a few slivers a night. Drunkenness and violence were so frequent that the more law-abiding and prosperous strangers, unwilling to use these facilities, usually found lodging in private homes. Not only were the standards higher there, but a steady increase in the demand frequently led to the conversion of such homes into boardinghouses. Describing conditions during the 17305, O. F. Mentzel wrote: ‘Board and lodging can be obtained at these small hostelries for 34 slivers a day; wine is extra, unless it is supplied as part of the meal . . . What has been said above of humble townsmen applies even more forcibly to prominent wealthy burghers, at whose houses captains, superior officers and distinguished visitors sojourn temporarily. The charges and consequently the profits are higher, but the methods are very much the same. At these fashionable houses, board and lodging costs one rix-dollar per diem, with the style of accommodation and the quality of the table of a high standard. Here again extras make the bill mount up.

‘Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the famous French novelist, visiting the Cape in 1768, describes the efforts of rival hosts to secure lodgers from passing ships by sending representatives in boats out into the roadstead. Few records survive of these early hostelries, but we know that the Abbe De la Caille patronised a boarding-house in Strand Street, the site of which is today marked by a memorial tablet. Captain James Cook, the explorer, when he visited the Cape in yes, procured quarters for himself and members of his staff with one Brand, at the rate of half-a-crown a day, ‘for which we were provided with victuals, drink and lodging’.

Hotels in the modern sense made their appearance at the Cape soon after the first British occupation in 1795, the earliest being the Old Thatched Tavern, facing Greenmarket Square, which, despite the disappearance of the original straw roof early in the 19th century, survived, at any rate in name, until 1970. The oldest existing hotel in South Africa seems to be the Houw Hoek Inn in the Houhoek Pass (between Sir Lowry’s Pass and Caledon), which, according to tradition, was founded about 1834.

Very well known in those days in Cape Town was the London Hotel in Hour Street, as well as Morison’s.

Hotel at No. 6 Keizersgracht (now Darling Street), established about 1800 by a Scot of that name. William Wilberforce Bird, in his ‘Notes on the Cape of Good Hope’, described his stay at Morison’s in 1820: ‘We are moderately comfortable, and at a somewhat reduced cost. The charge is six rix-dollars a day, including all expenses. The house is upon the plan of an English boarding-house. A public breakfast at nine; luncheon or tiffin, as it is called, after the Indian fashion (a most essential meal, consisting of meats hot and cold, fruits, wine, etc.) at one; dinner at half-past six. This method is usual at the Cape.

‘Standards of comfort were raised with the opening in 1821 of the St. George’s Hotel at the foot of St. George’s Street, which lasted until the end of the century. Countless others followed, notably Poole’s Hotel in New Street (now Queen Victoria Street), particularly frequented by officials and parliamentarians; Widdow’s Masonic Hotel in Grave Street (now Parliament Street), the resort of Freemasons; and a number of others in the suburbs, notably the Vineyard (on the site of the present Vineyard Hotel in Newlands) and Rathfelder’s, on the way to Constantia. Several early hostelries even gave their names to suburbs, for instance, Drie Koppen, forerunner of Mowbray. Farmer Peck’s Inn at Muizenberg, opened in 1825, was one of the first seaside hotels. Renamed the Grand during the Second Anglo-Boer War, it survived into the 20th century. This had, of course, no connection with the Grand Hotel in Cape Town.

Improved amenities were to be noticed in Cape hotels during the course of the 19th century, especially after the introduction of railways had given a stimulus to travel. In 1893 the Union Steamship Company led the way by opening its own hotel in Cape Town the Grand in Strand Street repeatedly rebuilt and finally demolished in 1973. The establishment of the Grand Hotel led, six years later, to an even more ambitious undertaking by the Castle Steamship Company, headed by Sir Donald Currie, who established a first-rate hotel on the Mount Nelson estate in the Gardens. Designed by English architects and managed at first by a Swiss expert, Emil Cathrein, the Mount Nelson from the outset attracted an exclusive clientele and during the Second AngloBoer War was the unofficial headquarters of the British army and harboured prosperous refugees from the Witwatersrand (hence its nickname ‘The Helots’ Rest’).

Development of hotels in other parts of the country proceeded more slowly, but as early as 1808 there was already an inn beside the warm baths at Caledon. The arrival of the 1820 Settlers gave an impetus to English names and to such customs as the ‘ordinary’ (defined as a fixed-price meal in a public eatinghouse) in the Eastern Province. Among the earliest hotels in Port Elizabeth was the still existing Phoenix, dating back to 1840, while in Grahamstown the Cheshire Cheese (the hotel no longer exists) and similar names reminded the emigrants of the ‘Old Country”

The Boer tradition of private hospitality inhibited the development of hotels in the republics and, although by degrees this factor receded, for a long time both Durban and Pietermaritzburg were in advance of Bloemfontein, Potchefstroom and Pretoria in this respect. The Plough Hotel was one of the earliest in the Natal capital, while, in honour of Prince Alfred, Durban’s leading hostelry was, in 1860, named the Royal, an appellation which persists with great frequency elsewhere.Wayside hotels throughout South Africa were notoriously bad, primitive in their facilities and usually constructed of corrugated iron. Their condition became even more noticeable after the discovery of diamonds, and strangers arriving in Kimberley were frequently offered nothing but canvas. None the less, some of the earlier hotel-keepers there, such as Mrs. Jardine, acquired a reputation for good service and good food. Rough-and-ready were the conditions at early mining centres like Pilgrim’s Rest, Barberton and Johannesburg. In 1886, within a few months of the founding of Johannesburg, the Central Hotel opened in Commissioner Street. It was one of the first brick structures on the gold-fields. Height’s Hotel, one of the leading establishments on the Witwatersrand, dated from 1887, but was demolished some eighty years later. Another early Johannesburg hotel, the Great Britain, in the suburb named City and Suburban, was erected in 1888 and demolished in the 1960s.Barnato and Rhodes helped to produce a revolution in hotel-keeping standards – the former by starting the enterprise which developed into the Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg, the latter by causing De Beers to put up a fine hotel on the outskirts of Kimberley and the Chartered Company to sponsor the Grand Hotel at Bulawayo. Equipped in 1906 by the famous London firm of blaring & Gillow at a cost of £750 000, the Carlton’s 200 rooms set an entirely new standard. In Durban, too, there were radical changes, following the opening, about 1880, of the original Beach Hotel, forerunner of the array that today lines the Marine Parade. Here the construction of the Hotel Edward in 1909 further improved the situation, helping to attract the investment of large sums in modern buildings.Hotel development proceeded more slowly in Bloemfontein, where the first hostelries included the Vrystaat Hotel in the 1860′s.

At Pretoria, too, the first hostelries were almost rural in their simplicity, notably L. Taylor’s Edinburgh Hotel in the seventies. Polley’s, originally the Transvaal Hotel, was for many years the premier rendezvous in the Transvaal capital. A still existing early hotel there is the Residentie. Mention must also be made of individual enterprise in unusual places, such as the Hotel Milner, opened by J. D. Logan at Matjiesfontein in the 1880′s, which became a resort popular with many eminent travellers.

After a lapse of generations, the place underwent rejuvenation in the 1970s.In 1882 Anders Ohlsson took over the brewery of the Chevalier Jacob Letterstedt in Newlands, Cape Town; this he modernised and greatly expanded. Ever since his time large South African breweries and liquor firms have been active in the hotel-keeping field, more especially through financial support of lessees; this was the system of ‘tied houses’. Chains of hotels have been relatively few in South Africa until comparatively recent times. Here a milestone was the founding, about 11930, of African Amalgamated Hotels Ltd., owners of leading establishments in Johannesburg and coastal cities.Attempts to improve the standards of hotel-keeping by official action go back to the beginning of the present century, but no practical steps were taken for many years. In 1936 Prof A. J. Norval, of Pretoria, prepared an authoritative survey of the situation in South Africa, published in London under the title. The tourist industry – a national and international survey. This helped to stimulate interest, but not until 1945 was the South African Tourist Corporation established, and only in 1965 was compulsory inspection and classification of hotels introduced. This is now universally enforced, being indicated by grading with varying numbers of stars (up to five) by the Hotels Board. Largely because of this, the rising numbers of well-to-do tourists, and the general influx of capital, even from the United States of America, there has been a sudden upsurge of hotel-building throughout the country. This is still in progress and in it many large companies are involved. 

Source SESA Copyright Naspers

Principal town in the Cape Province in the magisterial district and division of Albert, situated in a sheltered valley on the Stormberg Spruit, on the main railway from East London to Bloemfontein, Altitude 4,554 ft.; Burgersdorp is also the junction of a branch line via Aliwal North to Bloemfontein . Population (1960): White 2,291; Coloured 870; Asiatic 12; Bantu 3,992. The name was formerly written in English as Burghersdorp.
Toward 1844 about 300 families between the Stormberg Spruit and the Kraai River were granted permission by the Dutch Reformed presbytery of Graaff Reinet to establish a parish of their own. On 27 December 1847 they purchased the farm Klipfontein, belonging to Gert Buytendach, to found a town and build a church. To the great annoyance of many it was proposed to name the town Maitland in honour of the Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland. He, however, declined the honour because the British government hesitated to declare this region a magistracy. Thereupon the town was named Burgersdorp, according to some in honour of the burgher commandos during the Seventh Frontier War (1846-47). It is, however, more likely that it was so named because of the fact that the town was established on the initiative of the burghers themselves. Burgersdorp remained Church property until 01 January 1913, when title was transferred to the municipality. On 21 January 1860 the Rev. Dirk Postma founded a congregation of the Gereformeerde Kerk, as many parishioners left the original Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk; and in 1869 he established a Theological Seminary of the Geref. Kerk, which was transferred to Potchefstroom in 1905. Burgersdorp, however, has always remained a stronghold of the ‘Doppers’ or Gereformeerde adherents.

Here also is the Taalmonument (Language Monument) in commemoration of the official recognition of the Dutch language by the Cape Parliament on 9 June 1882, as proposed by Jan Hendrik (‘Onze Jan’) Hofmeyr. The main inscription, reads: ‘De Overwinning der Hollandsche Taal’ (the triumph of the Dutch language). The life-size marble figure of a woman holds a tablet in her hand with the above inscription. She stands on a high pedestal of granite, to which large marble slabs are fixed bearing further inscriptions. The district of Burgersdorp played a prominent part in the movement for the recognition of Dutch. In 1856 the member for Albert (Burgersdorp district), J. A. Kruger, asked for permission to address the House in Dutch. The request was turned down by the Speaker, but it was the beginning of a movement which continued for 25 years until success was achieved. The monument was unveiled by the chairman of the responsible committee, D. P. van den Heever, M.L.A., on 18 January 1893.

During the Second Anglo-Boer War the statue was removed by the military authorities, and in 1907 the British government put up a replica to take its place. On 3 1 May 2933 this statue was moved to Burgher Square, and in 1937 declared a historical monument. The missing statue was recovered in 1939 at King William’s Town, with the head and one arm missing. In 1957 it was re-erected by the Cultural Society of Burgersdorp in its damaged condition behind the replica. The replica has meanwhile been moved to the foyer of the new library, and the original monument placed beside the Burgher Monument on Burgher Square.

On 13 November 1899 400 Boers defeated a large British force at the Battle of Stormberg, near the town. Ruins of the old Boer forts are still to be seen in the vicinity. The blockhouse at De Wetsville, to the south of the town, was proclaimed a historical monument in 1939.
The J. L. de Bruin Waterworks have solved the town’s water problems, and a water-borne sewage disposal scheme has been carried out at a cost of R50, 000. Electricity is supplied by a municipal power-station. There are residential areas with all amenities for Coloured people and Bantu. Local newspaper: Die Albert Boerevriend (established 1926), bilingual, weekly. Burgersdorp’s former importance as a cultural centre is exemplified by the fact that the Albert Times and Aliwal North Advertiser was started here in 1854, followed by half a dozen other English or bilingual weekly newspapers; while a weekly in Dutch, De Stem, appeared from 1902 to 1925, and two church magazines subsisted for some years until the nineties.

(2) Transvaal. Small suburb in the municipality and magisterial district of Johannesburg, adjoining Newtown and ½ west of the City Hall. The Rand Aid Association had quarters in it. The Government of the Transvaal Republic had the land divided into 311 stands for ‘bywoners’ (sharecroppers) and other Poor Whites who were destitute and landless.

Source: Standard Encylopeadea of South Africa Vol 2. Published in 1970. Acknowledgments: with kind permission.